The Brian Clough Trophy.

"It's only a game!"

Essentially, yes, it is just a game out of the 46 league fixtures we play in the Championship, but there is an added twist - there is a trophy up for grabs.

The raw passion, the pride, the desire; these features are what makes this match up so beautiful. It is deeply underappreciated by multiple football fans across the globe, whom see this as just another Championship game. But that's the beauty of it! There is no extravagant spending, there is no technological interference, there are no world class players walking about with a sense of arrogance. Everybody is on a level playing field; every player out there on the pitch are at the same level.

This season, the stakes are higher than in recent games, with both teams vying for the play-off spots (one team will be more successful in this ambition and we know which side) and the points tally extremely tight. Derby are in seventh place with 51 points, just two points behind sixth placed Bristol City on 53 points. Nottingham Forest are in ninth place with 47 points, and a win would take them just a point behind Derby and three points away from a play-off spot. The margins are narrow on this one.

The players know what is at stake. The management teams know what is at stake. And most of all, the fans know what is at stake - this game promises to bring out the intense resentment of the opposing club from the fans.

Both sides have met 103 times, with this fixture being the 104th - and Forest have come out as winners 39 times, and Derby 38 times; there have also been 26 draws between the two teams. However, in the last ten years, after Derby were relegated from the Premier League and Nottingham Forest got promoted from League 1, Derby and Forest have played against each other 21 times in the league (the one on 25th February 2019 to be the 22nd time), and Derby won 9 of those games, 6 were draws and Forest won 6.

Interestingly, since the World War II, there have been 30 players playing for both clubs, and a massive number of those players making transfers in the 1970s-1980s - in the Brian Clough period. One of the most recognised players is Alan Hinton, the first player to move directly from Forest to Derby; he made 253 appearances for Derby County, scoring 63 goals and winning two league titles after transferring from Nottingham Forest for £30,000. Also, the only player to resign permanently with either club is Archie Gemmill, playing for Derby in 1970 and left for Nottingham Forest in 1977 then resigning for Derby in 1982 for the final two years of his career.

The record home victory belongs to Derby (twice) where they beat Forest 5-0 at the Baseball Ground in April 1898 then again in March 2014 at Pride Park. The legendary Steve Bloomer holds the record of most goals against Forest, scoring 26 games. The record attendance for this fixture is 42,074 in March 1970 at the City Ground, and Derby won this game 3-1 meaning about 35,000 Forest fans watched this delightful feat.

Derby have also been unbeaten in the last six fixtures against Forest, with their last loss coming in a 1-0 defeat in November 2015. Since then, Derby have been dominant, winning three and drawing two. This is also a fixture that promises to boil over, as there has been five red cards shown in the last seven fixtures - one for Forest and four for Derby. Dedication.

The players in this fixture - they have to go out and fight. They are a group of eleven men out on the pitch, representing the club, its history and the thousands of Derby fans. They should wear the Derby shirt with pride, and hold their heads high, and prepare to give their all on the pitch. Make us proud.

But the most important part of this eagerly anticipated fixture - you fans. We make, or break, the game and we are responsible of the history for this game. We make memories, we learn and tell stories, we are here. The players, and management team, are at the club for a few years before they move on with their lives - we live and breathe our club. We learn the history through those close to us, and we are the ones to continue the history throughout our generations and throughout the future generations. We are here for Derby, and we carry that desire within us, the desire to carry the pride of the Midlands, because we fucking love this club.

Regardless of the result, the intensity of our devotion to our club will mean we will always have the glimmering pride of saying we support Derby. But we know we will smash them red dogs.

We are fucking Derby.