It hardly seemed like for like but Prior was outstanding against his former colleagues vigilantly restraining the dangerous Emile Heskey who never gave

It hardly seemed like for like, but Prior was outstanding against his former colleagues, vigilantly restraining the dangerous Emile Heskey, who never gave up trying to get the better of his marker but was rendered ineffective.In the wing-back’s position on the left, Smith has installed Stefan Schnoor, a free transfer signing from Hamburg, in place of Chris Powell, sold to Charlton for pounds 830,000 Good business again. Smith believes he has corrected the imbalance and results so far back him up. Six matches without defeat represent the club’s best start to a season in the top flight for more than 50 years.”We threw some silly games away last season but bringing in Spencer Prior as an out-and-out defender has made us more solid,” Smith said.Prior, who cost pounds 700,000, replaced Christian Dailly, sold for pounds 5.3m to Blackburn. So far, Smith inspires more confidence and his side looks to have made the greater progress. Part of the reason is the signing of a Leicester player, the centre-back Spencer Prior.Last season Derby had an abundance of flair, but not always enough substance.

Derby County 2 Leicester City 0

HERE ARE two clubs who are living proof that it is possible to win a place in the Premiership and keep it. For each, this is the third season since promotion and neither looks set for relegation yet, despite Leicester’s lowly current position.
The key is canny management. Jim Smith, whose League experience spans more than 26 years, is as shrewd as they come. Martin O’Neill, while a rookie by comparison, has already proved he has outstanding qualities.Neither missed Europe by much last season and both aim to rectify that this time. Substitutes not used: Breacker, Hodges, Partridge, Forrest (gk).Referee: M Reed (Birmingham).Bookings: Nottingham Forest: Armstrong, Lyttle, Harewood.

West Ham: Ferdinand, Pearce, Impey.Man of the match: Impey.Attendance: 26,463.. “They we’d really have been in a mess,” he chuckled.Nottingham Forest (4-4-2): Beasant; Lyttle (Louis-Jean, 31), Chettle, Armstrong, Rogers; Stone, Quashie, Johnson, Bonalair; Darcheville (Gray, 82), Harewood (Freedman, 72) Substitutes not used: Edwards. Crossley (gk).West Ham United (4-4-2): Hislop; Potts, Pearce, Ferdinand, Impey; Sinclair, Lampard, Berkovic, Keller; Abou (Omoyimni, 79), Wright. “Thinking about the way things looked on Friday I’m satisfied,” Redknapp added.Jokingly of course, I suggested to Redknapp that he could have turned out himself. Since West Ham lacked the wit to avoid an offside trap you could see the game going against them especially when Jean-Claude Darcheville was provided with more opportunities to apply his withering pace.Unfortunately for Forest their best chance was headed wide by Marlon Harewood and Doug Freedman’s clever chip after coming on as a late replacement passed just past the far post.West Ham, too, had chances to take all three points and almost went ahead just before half-time when Ian Wright lofted the ball over Dave Beasant and against the underside of the crossbar.Earlier, Wright’s quick-footed reaction to the half-chance was closer to bringing West Ham a goal than was imagined by the audience but he missed from no more than four yards when Eyal Berkovic’s half-hit shot wrong- footed Forest’s defence.It had turned out to be a strange week for West Ham who have no great hopes of seeing their injured men back quickly; victors over Liverpool last week then embarrassed by Northampton in the Worthington Cup they were content with their ninth point of the season.