Clough Sings Hulse's Praises

Rob Hulse stepped off his sickbed to score twice to help us to a 5-3 win over Preston at Pride Park on Tuesday night and Nigel Clough couldn't praise him enough.

"Having come out of his bed that he's been in with a stomach upset most of the day and last night, to get two goals and barge around I think I heard somebody say he should have a stomach upset more often!

We pencilled Chris Porter in and then he (Hulse) picked up a bit this afternoon and said, 'Well I'll give it a go, I'll start and see how long I can last'. But when that second one went in, he lasted a bit longer being on a hat-trick."

Being able to field and unchanged side, something that we've not been able to do much this season, was an important thing for us as was the fact that we responded well to the late FA Cup defeat last Saturday.

"Once again we saw the benefits of an unchanged side, a team playing with confidence and the most pleasing thing was how we reacted to the disappointment from Saturday.

We could have easily been in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup, got knocked out in the 92nd minute."

The Rams boss is prepared to concede a bit defensively so long as we continue to create as many chances, and score them, as we did against Preston.

"But we set about Preston from the first whistle and created plenty of chances and we'll forego a little bit of the defensive solidity we've had to score five goals, that's inevitable.

We're not going to be that solid when we're going forward as much as we did tonight."

Clough was talking after the match.

If we adopt a we'll score more goals than you approach for the rest of the season it'll be entertaining if nothing else!

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