Clough defensive after FA charges
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Your support makes all the difference.Derby manager Nigel Clough wants the Football Association to consider the context in which the melee occurred at the end of Saturday's derby against Nottingham Forest.
Clough is hoping Derby and Forest avoid sanctions following the Pride Park match, however both Coca-Cola Championship clubs have been charged by the FA with failing to control their players.
Forest were fined £15,000 and Derby penalised £10,000 after the teams were found guilty of the same offence when they met at the City Ground in August, and it now seems inevitable the FA will invoke suspended fines of £10,000 on each club.
It is also possible that the governing body will impose additional financial penalties.
Clough said: "I know the FA want to clamp down on this kind of thing and I understand that but, at the same time, it's a derby game.
"In local derbies supporters expect a few tackles flying in but when you analyse it there wasn't too much going off. We committed 15 fouls, they committed 16. You see fouls in the twenties in normal games.
"And when you look at our disciplinary record over the last 12 months it has been very good indeed."
Forest boss Billy Davies accused Clough of kneeing him in the back of the leg during the touchline scuffle, but the Derby boss has denied that was the case.
He insists Derby did not instigate the weekend incident.
Clough added: "We feel we were provoked at the City Ground earlier this season and what started it off on Saturday was three red shirts converging on Jay McEveley.
"The last thing we want is confrontation but we don't expect our team-mates and staff to stand around and do nothing. No punches were thrown or anything, all we did was react to three Forest players converging on Jay McEveley.
"It's called supporting your team-mates and it probably looked a lot worse than it was."
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