Derby County defender Craig Forsyth will hold special memories of his Testimonial Match at Pride Park Stadium.
The Rams’ longest-serving player’s 10 years in black and white was celebrated with a pre-season fixture dedicated to him against Stoke City, during which he received a guard of honour as he walked onto the field with his two children, was presented with a special gift from the club and was joined on the pitch by friends and former team-mates David Nugent, fellow Scot Craig Bryson, Martyn Waghorn and Bradley Johnson, who has recently rejoined the club as a Player-Coach for the Under-21s.
And as well as celebrating Forsyth’s service, Derby were left celebrating a third win from four pre-season outings thanks to first half goals from Curtis Nelson, James Collins and Nathaniel Mendez-Laing marking their return to Pride Park Stadium in style.
After the match, Forsyth spoke to RamsTV to discuss the day, the match and more.
On his Testimonial…
It was a brilliant day all round. Some special memories have been made; having my whole family down, walking out with the kids and a win as well. The kids understand what I do now but maybe not what today was about. It’s a good memory for them and something we’ll all look back on fondly. I’ve got a lot of family down so tonight will be spent seeing them and it’ll be time for reflection in a few days’ time.
On former team-mates’ appearances…
Having my former team-mates back was good fun, even if some of them were blowing a bit! Earlier this week, the boss put it to me and said if I wanted to, he’d speak to Stoke’s manager. The boys were brilliant and came down at short notice for it, which was brilliant.
On the match…
Everybody was buzzing after the first half because once we got hold of what they were doing we felt comfortable and scored some brilliant goals. The new boys are still grasping what the staff want them to do so today was another big step in the right direction. You can see everyone is getting fitter and sharper, so we have one more friendly to go - against Sheffield United next week back at Pride Park - and then hopefully we can start the season with a bang.
