Saturday 17 January 2015 19:14, UK
Stuart Pearce hopes Nottingham Forest's 2-1 against east midlands rivals Derby at the iPro Stadium can be the catalyst to revive the club's flagging fortunes.
As can often be the case with derby encounters, the form book was turned upside-down as Forest upset the odds with a 2-1 win against their fiercest rivals, ending a four-game losing run and tasting success for only the third time in the past 21 matches.
In contrast, the Rams had won four on the spin and would have gone top of the Sky Bet Championship table, for a few hours at least, had they avoided defeat.
While the elation, and to a degree relief, was not lost on Pearce, he knows the euphoria of beating Derby will count for nothing if they cannot build on the result when they travel to Fulham on Wednesday night.
"For the team to deliver a performance like that, it puts a marker down for the rest of the season," said the Reds boss.
"It's a nice result but it has to be a result that acts as a catalyst and sees us have a good run between now and the summer hopefully, because we have the nucleus of a decent squad here.
"It's important that we now move forward from here and follow it up with another good result in the next game."
Pearce, by his own admission, made the short trip along the A52 in a vulnerable position.
The knives were beginning to be sharpened at half-time on Saturday afternoon as Derby led through a Henri Lansbury own goal. But Forest emerged for the second half a different team and deservedly equalised through leading scorer Britt Assombalonga.
Pearce's players were showing the fighting spirit he had called for following last weekend's home defeat to Sheffield Wednesday, and in the build-up to this game.
Their endeavour was rewarded in injury-time when Derby-born midfielder Ben Osborn led a counter-attack down the left-hand side before firing a shot past goalkeeper Lee Grant from just inside the box.
The 20-year-old's goal may just have earned a stay of execution for his manager, who celebrated wildly on the pitch following the strike - and after the final whistle.
Pearce, Forest's formidable left-back for 12 years, said: "If you don't win football matches, you'll bring adverse publicity. If anything adverse does come our way, I'd rather it be at me than the players get it.
"I think it's great the fans have had a great day today because their loyalty and support for me has been unswervable this season, even when results have not gone well.
"That loyalty means a lot to me, I respect loyalty. I'm entrenched in Nottingham, you all know that. The connection I have, it's slightly more than just a job for me."
Derby head coach Steve McClaren felt defeat was harsh on the Rams and blamed his side's inexperience for the loss.
"I can't fault the first-half performance," said McClaren. "We were focused, played when we had to, dominated and restricted them to set-plays. They were playing opportune football.
"We didn't deserve to lose. I think a draw would have been about right. Everybody would have gone away satisfied with a draw. When they equalised, I would have taken the draw.
"But we showed our inexperience at the end, thinking that with 30 seconds left we should go and try to win it. We lost all shape and got punished.
"The first half we played like us, the second half was not us."
The game was marred by an incident after the final whistle when a fan got on to the pitch and tried to throw a punch at Forest defender Kelvin Wilson, before confronting a handful of other visiting players.
The supporter, who ran on from a Derby section of the stadium and through a line of stewards, appeared to swing for Wilson and was then tackled to the ground by his team-mate Jamaal Lascelles.
He was then surrounded by stewards and dragged away from the Forest players, who were celebrating their comeback victory.
