Derby 3 Huddersfield 0: ‘Honoured’ Lillis has no plans to apply for the Hudderfield post

“Derby played very well and all credit to (manager) Nigel (Clough). He’s doing well and they looked like a top-six team,” he said.

“It’s been a tough week for us and we caught them on a good day and they deserved the win.

“But there’s no lack of application or commitment on the pitch and I am proud of the players.”

Lillis says he has no intention of putting his name forward for the vacant manager’s job.

“We are in the process of going through applications, but the main thing for me is to pull everyone together.

“I am not going to throw my hat into the ring because I am the academy manager of Huddersfield and I’m honoured to be that.”

Huddersfield had not won at Derby since 1957 and they went behind in the 24th minute when Bryson got in front of a defender just outside the six-yard box to turn in Paul Coutts’s cross from the right.

Huddersfield almost conceded a second four minutes later when Conor Sammon got behind them on the left before he was crowded out by two defenders, but Derby increased their lead with a quality finish in the 33rd minute.

Left-back Gareth Roberts made a strong run to deliver a cross which Ward dispatched with a left-foot half volley from 15 yards into the top right corner.

The visitors’ cause was not helped when Clarke did not come out for the second half.

Any chance of a Huddersfield fightback ended in the 59th minute when Ward swung in a free-kick from the right and Richard Keogh planted a header inside Alex Smithies’s right post.

Derby County: Legzdins, Brayford, Keogh, O’Brien, Roberts (Freeman 86), Coutts, Bryson, Hendrick, Hughes (Jacobs 88), Sammon, Ward (Robinson 81). Unused substitutes: Fielding, Davies, O’Connor, Doyle.

Huddersfield Town: Smithies, Hunt, P Clarke (Wallace 46), Gerrard, Woods, Danns, Norwood (Lee 77), Clayton, Arfield, Novak (Scannell 54), Vaughan. Unused substitutes: Bennett, Dixon, Gobern, Sinnott.

Referee: K Stroud (Hampshire).

Man of the match: James Vaughan.