After Leicester City thumped local rivals Nottingham Forest 3-0 in the East Midlands derby at the Walkers Stadium on Saturday, the Foxes Faithful were absolutely buzzing.

Second half goals from Bruno Berner, Paul Gallagher and Andy King sealed the victory and maintained City’s promotion challenge. In front of their highest home attendance of the season, Leicester played with genuine hunger and desire and once they got the breakthrough, there was only one winner.

Speaking after the game, City manager Nigel Pearson was clearly delighted with the result.

“I’m pleased, of course I am. It’s a good result, keeps our run going and I thought we deserved to win. We’ve had a decent run of form since Christmas. We’ve always been in games and the games we’ve lost have been narrow defeats. I think that the players have worked very, very hard.

“It was always going to be a tight game. People were always going to look back at the result in December and that had an influence on how they viewed the game. We always felt it was going to be tight and for long periods it was.

“We scored goals from two set plays and that changed the game, but I think we thoroughly deserved it today. It may answer one or two critics as well, so it was a good day for us.”

Pearson didn’t think his side’s 5-1 defeat against Forest earlier in the season had much bearing on their preparation for Saturday’s game, but was delighted to get the three points.

“I know there’s been a lot of talk about the corresponding fixture this week and for the players who were involved in that, it’s good. The players have consistently been playing well this season. It’s a big ask when you come up from League One to be doing what we’re doing and I think the players have to take an awful lot of credit for the level of consistency we’ve shown all season.

“Local derbies always have a bit of an edge and the fans will see it as having the bragging rights, ‘we owe them one’ and all that type of stuff, but the bottom line was that it was an important game for us. At this stage of the season if you’ve got some momentum going then you need to try and maintain it. I think we did that today and it was nice to do it in front of a full house. We’re looking good at the moment.”

The City boss admitted to taking a little more satisfaction from the victory after that away drubbing in December.

“Of course there is, I’m only human. In terms of preparation, it’s been the same as it always would be. We’ve changed a wee bit since that game because we’ve had to. We’ve been playing well and it’s always important to emphasise the positive aspects of your game. I think today it was a tight game for an hour. I’m just pleased we’ve got the three points and now we can move on.”

Forest boss Billy Davies felt his players were comfortable until Bruno Berner broke the deadlock, but was disappointed with how they responded to going a goal behind.

”Up until that point I felt that we were the more likely and deserved to be ahead. I was very comfortable in open play and didn’t think there was any issue. We didn’t deal with the free-kick for the first goal. The second free-kick might have been a bit soft and I’d need to look at it. But, it was given and they scored a great goal. After that, we just lost our discipline totally.”

It was Forest’s fourth away league defeat in a row and Davies conceded that many of his players weren’t up for the battle.

“When you’re playing games like this you need a certain type of player and you need to compete. Quite frankly, from middle to front, I don’t think we competed. We didn’t do enough on the ball, we didn’t do enough with regards to challenges, the battles and the nasty side of the game. I thought that when they scored the goal they competed a lot better than us.

“We’ve got no excuses. I’m a little bit disappointed for my back five, I think they competed quite well. But, I’m extremely disappointed in my middle to front players, I don’t think they did enough on the day to influence the game. After the first goal I don’t think we showed enough discipline or character.”