Derby County secured a 2-0 win over Huddersfield Town in the Championship on Tuesday night.
George Edmundson scored a bullet header in the first half to give the Rams the lead. It started with Nathan Byrne's corner which was cleared off the line, the ball made its way back to Byrne who played it back in for Edmundson to attack with power and head past Ryan Schofield.
Colin Kazim-Richards did exceptionally well to win the ball in his own half with his back to goal before he spun a Town defender and played through substitute, Martyn Waghorn. Waghorn had an entire half of the pitch to dribble before he slotted past Schofield to double Derby's lead.
Wayne Rooney's side found themselves under great pressure in the early stages of the second half but soaked it up well and were able to hit Huddersfield on the counter-attack. But credit goes to Rooney who made the tactical change at half-time with his side one goal to the good.
Story of the game
After a dominant start from the Town, their best opportunity came when Pipa found space down the right-wing and cut the ball back for Fraizer Campbell to test David Marshall. Marshall was forced into an acrobatic save and tipped the ball over the bar for a corner.
Derby came up the other end to find their best chance inside of the opening 15 minutes. Graeme Shinnie's header found the head of Kazim-Richards who mistimed his jump and headed the ball over the bar from the six-yard-box.
The Rams kept up the intense pressure and won themselves a corner. Derby in recent weeks have worked hard on corners and they have become Rooney's secret weapon.
It worked again tonight when Byrne's ball in was cleared off the line from his inswinging corner. The ball found its way back to Byrne who put in a dangerous ball for Edmundson to meet with his head and opened the scoring.
At half-time, the Rams lead 1-0.
Huddersfield dominated the second half and put the Rams under great pressure. Rooney changed the formation at half-time from 3-5-2 to 4-2-3-1, which forced his side to soak up the pressure and hit the Terriers on the counter.
This worked to perfection in the 66th minute when Kazim-Richards won the ball in his own half and immediately played through the substitute Waghorn. Waghorn took a heavy touch which nearly gave the Town defence enough time to catch up but he managed to get his strike off which was perfectly placed past Schofield into the bottom right corner.
The tactical change was seen throughout the remainder of the match as Derby threatened when they did go forward but also remained defensively sound.
Huddersfield were poor and could not get anything going for them up top which frustrated Carlos Corberan for the majority of the second half.
Jaden Brown let his side down after he was sent off having only played 15 minutes. He was subbed on to change the game and the only change he made was to the amount of red shirts on the pitch.
For Rooney and his Derby, they enjoyed their third victory in four matches and climb above Huddersfield in the league.