Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, Savage!

It's been nearly twenty four hours since the final whistle confirmed our first victory over Derby County in six-and-a-half years of trying, and I'm still high as a kite. It really was a magical day in Nottingham yesterday, and I am going to make sure I savour it for a long time to come.

Nathan Tyson's post-match corner flag celebration has to go down as one of my favourite moments – EVER. He was already a cult hero with the Forest supporters anyway, but now he's been elevated on to another plane altogether. I don't care if the spoilsports at the Football Association land him with a fine for 'inciting a riot'. Who cares? I thought it was wonderful, and it wound up the despicable Robbie Savage good and proper – and that is absolutely priceless. The sight of Savage's ugly, greasy long-haired mug on Sky Sports News bleating about Tyson waving the flag in front of the Sheep fans was brilliant TV, and I hope somebody puts it on YouTube so we can watch it over and over again! What a hypocritical person Savage is. He really wound us up last season when he waved his Derby scarf in front of his fans at the City Ground, and although it was in front of his own supporters, rather than ours, it still rankled with the Forest fans and players alike. So it was only right that justice was done. The FA say they will investigate the mêlée as a 'matter of urgency', but to be honest it wasn't much of a big deal. Most of the players were trying to restrain people, not actually get involved. Tyson will probably be hit in the pocket, and that will be that.

Even though the second half was really frightening in the way we very nearly squandered our half time 3-0 lead. I am almost glad we did let in two goals now because the end was so thrilling when the whistle finally blew. I didn't for one moment think that we had won the match when we went three up. I just knew that we'd sit back after the break and let Derby back into it, and so it proved. I was totally depressed when we conceded a second. I thought 'here we go again', and just waited for Derby to equalise, and possibly even go on to win. But thank the Lord, it never happened, and we managed to hold on. It would have been absolutely devastating to throw away a three-goal lead. I did fear it at half time, but being such a hypochondriac, I told myself I was being silly. But blimey, it was close. Our defence is absolutely scary. Both the goals were needlessly conceded. The first was an own goal which went in off Wes Morgan's head fives minutes into the half. That gave Derby some real momentum, and just over ten minutes later they were well and truly back in the match when more slapdash defending from Forest saw Jake Livermore fire past Lee Camp, taking a deflection off Paul McKenna along the way. I bet bookmakers would have offered short odds on Derby going on to win the match such was their dominance throughout the second 45 minutes.

It was a far cry from the first half when Forest had raced into a three-goal lead. We had the perfect start when just 58 seconds into the game, Radoslaw Majewski, whose goal against Middlesbrough in mid-week had put us in the 3rd round of the Carling Cup, showed off his talent yet again with a powerful 25-yard piledriver, which crashed into the back of the net, giving Stephen Bywater no chance. That raised the roof off the City Ground, and it inspired Forest to pour forward. Derby just couldn't handle us at all, and when Dexter Blackstock made it a deserved 2-0 half an hour into the game with a close-range header from a Chris Cohen free-kick, the Forest fans were beaming with happiness. Things just got better and better when a couple of minutes before half time Kris Commons lost possession and Forest took full advantage. Blackstock put Tyson clean through on goal, and cheekily rounded the goalkeeper to make it 3-0, and send the home fans wild with delight.

The news that the lacklustre Commons had been substituted at half time was greeted with jeers, but actually his replacement Lee Croft, a summer signing from Norwich City, whom we had been linked with ourselves, really terrorised us in the second half, so it wasn't such a good substitution from a Forest point of view after all. Luckily for us Billy Davies got his tactics right when he brought on Gareth McCleary for Joe Garner on the right wing, and this seemed to help Forest calm down a bit in defence. I think Garner might well have been sent off if he had stayed on the pitch for much longer. He was already on a yellow card, and in such a hostile atmosphere, the money would have been on him to see red considering his track record with referees.

Davies also played a huge part in our win, although I didn't realise it at the time. I couldn't understand why when about ten minutes from the end the crowd suddenly started cheering really loudly, roaring Forest on. I thought perhaps my watch had stopped and we had only a minute of injury time to go. But what transpired was that Davies had urged the home supporters to be really noisy and help create an atmosphere. It was very tense and quiet until then – very understandably after Derby had looked like they were going to break our hearts again - but once the crowd became really vocal, it helped the Forest players to regain their composure and it shook Derby up a little bit. They were never quite the same threat they had been earlier on. It's often said in football that the fans can be like a 12th man on the pitch, and I think certainly yesterday that was very true in Forest's case. If only we could be like that in every game, though, and not just once a year against our biggest rivals. Just imagine how many points better off we might be then.