CITY 0 DERBY 2

MARK Hughes was happy to see his team do the chasing as City’s pre-season suddenly ratcheted up several levels.

After the opening stroll at Bradford (Park Avenue), Derby’s Valley Parade visit represented a whole new challenge – the feelgood factor of the famous club’s revival from financial ruin further revving up the task.

It meant an afternoon for the Bantams spent on their toes in large spells – but just what the manager would have wanted to sharpen up the fitness and understanding.

High-profile signings David McGoldrick, Conor Hourihane and James Chester were not ready to be involved in Derby’s first outing since exiting administration.

But there was still plenty of expensive talent on display for a team who would have stayed up easily in the Championship last season without the points deductions.

Hughes suggested City’s legs may still have been on the plane from the previous day’s flight back from Spain as Derby dominated the early exchanges.

Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, in particular, was a constant danger on the right while Craig Forsyth, a former Phil Parkinson loanee at the start of the history-making season, enjoyed plenty of success on the other flank.

Finn Cousin-Dawson, the only outfield player on either side to go the full 90 minutes, and Reece Staunton both had uncomfortable afternoons at full back.

But City will not expect to come up against attacking talent of Derby’s calibre every week in League Two.

And the back four that lines up to start the real stuff against Doncaster in just under three weeks is likely to look very different.

Hughes will hope that Liam Ridehalgh is fully firing by then to take his usual left-back slot. Matty Foulds, if not, offers a solid alternative as he showed numerous times last season.

Right back remains a sticky one with Luke Hendrie still on his way back from a calf issue.

With Oscar Threlkeld clearly destined for the exit, you would anticipate Hughes targeting another senior player for that role.

Cousin-Dawson, like the other younger pros, could well be ear-marked for loan experience elsewhere to trim numbers to more manageable proportions going into the season.

Kian Scales, Charlie Wood and Bobby Pointon, all in a similar bracket, were among the changes who got their chance in the second half.

Pre-season at this stage remains all about clocking up minutes and Hughes, as he predicted, gave some a longer run-out.

Matty Platt, Yann Songo’o, Richie Smallwood and Ryan East all played just beyond the hour while Harry Lewis, like Cousin-Dawson, went the distance.

The keeper certainly made a good first impression on the Valley Parade audience, pulling off one excellent reaction block from Tom Barkhuizen’s header and making himself big on a couple of occasions when Derby had opened up the City defence.

Songo’o reprised his role at centre half, as City carefully nurse Timi Odusina up to speed, but had his hands full. He got away with an early back-pass blunder, selling Lewis horribly short, when Louie Sibley failed to locate the unguarded net.

But Derby’s pressure from the off got its reward soon enough after Cousin-Dawson was caught drifting out of position by Sibley’s incisive angled pass. Forsyth read it right and lashed home from an angle eight yards out.

Neither Lee Angol nor Jake Young did enough to trouble Derby at the other end where City’s chief menace was provided by Jamie Walker.

A neat interchange with Smallwood created a shooting chance that Joe Wildsmith beat away before the keeper was nearly embarrassed by the Scot’s cheeky long-distance chip.

But that was immediately followed by Derby’s second as Barkhuizen converted at the second attempt with the last kick of the half, his shot skidding into the turf and bouncing up and over Songo’o’s goalline attempts.

Again, that had come from Mendez-Laing carving a gaping hole in City’s backline after eluding Staunton to get to the line.

The second half was a more bitty affair as both sides rung the changes – Derby made an entire team swap at the break bar Wildsmith and gave a debut to Brighton defender Hayden Roberts, whose loan signing had only been announced an hour before kick-off.

Andy Cook was among the City arrivals - with his place set to come under further threat with the reported interest in Vadaine Oliver.

He had one sniff, a header over the bar after good pressing had forced Derby to cough up possession near their goal, but otherwise made few inroads.

Derby, backed by a vociferous 1,336-strong travelling army in a decent pre-season attendance of 4,218, have clearly got their bandwagon on the road again after a rocky journey.

For City, there is a long way to go but tough tests like this one do no harm in the meantime.

CITY: Lewis, Cousin-Dawson, Songo’o (Kelleher 64min), Platt (Threlkeld 64min), Staunton (Foulds 46min), Chapman (Osadebe 46min), Smallwood (Wood 64min), East (Pointon 64min), Walker (Scales 46min), Angol (Harratt 46min), Young (Cook 46min).

DERBY: Wildsmith, Oduroh, Davies, Cashin, Forsyth, Mendez-Laing, Bird, Thompson, Knight, Barkhuizen, Sibley.

Second half: Wildsmith (Foulkes 73min), Glover, Robinson, Aghatise, Stretton, Roberts (Grewal-Pollard 77min), Stearman, Rooney, Cybulski, McDonald, Richards.