Derby County's Nigel Clough pays the ultimate price as Nottingham Forest claim bragging rights Such is the lack of sentiment in the game sometimes and some will point out - rightly - that a name carries no privileges. Besides, Nigel had lost three games in eight days and had more than four years in the job, Derby treading mid-table water. Yet he was doing the job the owners, an American investment group, had asked him to do. He had halved the wage bill and brought through some talented young players, all the while keeping Derby free of relegation fears, sometimes on fringes of play-offs. Losses of around £8 million a season - minor amounts to some of the clubs in the Championship on a mad dash to the Premier League or on its parachute money - were acceptable to General Sports and Entertainment. This was to be another season of hoping to make the play-offs, but without real investment. In had come Johnny Russell from Dundee United for £700,000 but out had gone defender John Brayford to Cardiff City for double that. Compare Forest, who forked out £2 million alone on Djamel Abdoun, an Algerian midfield player and unimpressive substitute on Saturday. "We are happy with our squad in terms of value for money," the approachable Clough said afterwards. We thought that if we kept ­everybody fit, everything went well and we got some breaks that we didn't get today, we were aiming for the top six. Was there the budget to do that? "You would have to talk to our chief executive about where we are budget-wise," Clough said. Soon after, he himself talked to that chief executive Sam Rush, who had put in a call to America, and was told his fate. Derby were distinctly average on the day and slipped to seven points away from the play-offs. This, though, was a side who won 5-1 at Millwall a fortnight ago. And such are the vagaries of the Championship that seven points can be made up come the New Year. There is, too, talent in the team and hope for the future. Will Hughes is just 18 but already a silky, left-footed midfield player catching the eyes of such as Arsenal and Liverpool and valued at a minimum £10 million. Clough should be credited for signing and developing Hughes, but it is his successor who will get the benefit of any sale financing a ­genuine promotion attempt. It was too much to expect Hughes to seize such a frenzied game, though he should have been given scope to take more corners and free kicks. Instead, it was Andy Reid, once a wonderkid with a wand of a left foot himself who would go to Tottenham Hotspur for big money, who made the decisive contribution. His was the wicked inswinging corner for Jack Hobbs to head home the only goal, though Forest could have had more, notably when Darius Henderson took a penalty awarded after Richard Keogh fouled Chris Cohen, being sent off for a second yellow in the bargain. Lee Grant made a splendid save, however. "Tremendous for the fans to get bragging rights back which they have not had for a number of games and also against a club, they tell me, that's making very good progress and this one's a shambles," the combative Davies said. Quite who had told him that his team was a shambles, he would not say. They patently are not, instead being solid, if uninspiring, promotion contenders. He also rounded on an absent critic for "nonsense" about a perceived "Carry On Kuwait" view of the club's ownership, all with journalists being filmed by a club press officer and overseen by "advisor to the board" Jim Price, Davies's cousin. Price's role is being monitored by the Football League as he has been suspended as a solicitor in Scotland - which disbars him from being a club director under the fit-and-proper-person test - and is being investigated by police there over alleged financial irregularities. It was all conducted in the surroundings of a classroom that now serves as Forest's press centre, which was ironic given the lack of class. At least Nigel Clough has some. Nottingham Forest (4-4-2): Darlow, Lichaj, Hobbs, Collins, Cohen; Lansbury, Moussi (Harding, 16), Majewski (Abdoun, 65), Reid; Mackie, Henderson (Halford, 82). Subs De Vries, Jara, Derbyshire, Cox. Booked ­Harding, Cohen, Abdoun, Mackie. Derby County (4-4-2) Grant; Smith, Keogh, Buxton, Forsyth; Hughes, Eustace, Bryson, Ward (Jacobs, 90); Martin, Russell (Sammon, 58). Subs Deeney, Davies, Freeman, Bennett, Gjokai. Booked Keogh, Forsyth. Sent off Keogh. Referee S. Hooper (Wiltshire).