George Thorne couldn’t hide his delight at scoring Derby County’s winner at Huddersfield Town.
The midfielder scored a stunning long-range strike early in the second half as Derby ran out 2-1 winners at the John Smith’s Stadium.
Chris Martin had put Paul Clement’s side in front early on but Harry Bunn equalised after the half hour.
Thorne then stepped up to be Derby’s matchwinner to help maintain their fine run of form.
The Rams have now won six and drawn two of their last eight games and sit fifth in the Sky Bet Championship table.
The former England youth international's goal was his first in a Derby shirt since joining permanently from West Bromwich Albion in the summer of 2014.
He told Rams Player HD: “I’m delighted to get on the scoresheet but getting the win was the most important thing and keep momentum on our side.
“I’ve had goalkeepers plucking a few out in the last few weeks so I’m glad I’ve got one now.
“As soon as I hit it I knew it had a good chance of going in but you never know until it hits the net.
“Last week against Wolves I thought I’d scored, I’d started to turn away to celebrate, so it was a great feeling to see this one go in.
“It was brilliant to score in front of the fans as well and, as I said at the start, the three points was the most important thing today.
“The fans were fantastic, credit to them travelling in numbers again."
He added: “The goal came at the start of the second half so it was great that we managed to hold out and get another win.”
Thorne admitted that Derby’s gruelling week of three games in seven days was heavy on the players’ legs.
The side beat Wolves 4-2 at home last Sunday and recorded a 0-0 draw at Blackburn Rovers on Wednesday.
He has also moved to praise how the Rams are finding different ways to get points on the board.
He said: “Today was heavy on the legs because we’ve had three games in seven days.
“We weren’t at our best in the first half but we got the goal but we conceded a sloppy one by our standards.
“We got a kick up the butt at half time from the Head Coach and we got the goal and then showed great character to grind it out.
“We are finding different ways to get points and how we do it doesn’t matter, it’s all about getting those points on the board and continuing to move up the table.”
Thorne says seven points from a possible nine following the two week international break can be viewed as a positive return.
Derby now have back-to-back home games on the horizon, against Rotherham United (31st October) and Queens Park Rangers (3rd November).
He said: “If you look at it, I think we’d have taken seven points from nine even though we wanted the full return.
“We’ve had two tough away games inside a few days so a win and a draw is positive.
“Now we’ve got a home game next Saturday, the first of back-to-back home games, and we are relishing it already.
“We’ve got a full week to prepare and, already, we can’t wait to get back out at the iPro Stadium against Rotherham.
“We’re in a good place and long may it continue.”
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