ROBERT Earnshaw's wallet may be several hundred pounds lighter by this morning – but the striker believes it was worth every last penny.

The Nottingham Forest man is bracing himself for a fine, after picking up a caution at Pride Park for his over-elaborate celebrations.

But, after netting the winning goal against the Reds' most fierce rivals, the Welsh international says he was determined to enjoy the moment, which saw him produce his trademark forward flip before lapping up the adulation of the 4,000 travelling fans for more than a minute.

Click here to view our photo gallery of the game.

"I don't know if I'll get a fine for that. But I will try my best to talk my way out of it," said Earnshaw.

"I will take it if I do. I don't care. It might cost me a little bit.

"It depends on what you do, how much you get fined. But it is sometimes wiped off depending on the circumstances.

"We will see if I can launch a 'save Earnshaw' appeal. I hope the club might cut me some slack after that!"

Earnshaw said he was always planning to enjoy the moment, if he managed to find the net against his former club.

"I was conducting the orchestra for a minute there, I think, in front of a few thousand people," he laughed.

"I will try to get a picture of that somehow. I knew what I was doing, I knew I was going to get a yellow card for it as well.

"I wasn't interested in worrying about that. I just wanted to enjoy the moment.

"We knew we were going to win the game then and you have to enjoy those moments.

"There are not too many great things and great achievements that you can enjoy, so you must make the most of them."

Earnshaw admitted to being disappointed at starting the match on the bench.

But he believes that one of Forest's biggest strengths is the quality they have among their substitutes.

While the squad may not be massive at the City Ground, when it is largely injury-free, it does allow manager Billy Davies plenty of options to change the game in the second half – as demonstrated by Earnshaw's impact.

And, after seeing Nathan Tyson, Dele Adebola and Lewis McGugan come off the bench to help secure the win over Portsmouth a few weeks ago, Earnshaw believes it is a handy weapon for Forest to have in their armoury.

"That is the thing, we have a very good squad. We have a squad where people want to do well," said Earnshaw.

"People have great hunger for success. If they are a sub, they want to come on and make a difference.

"And that was certainly the case with me. I wanted to come on and make a difference.

"I wanted to test the keeper. I wanted to get a goal. In the first hour or so we were doing everything but test the keeper. We were not being clinical.

"That is what I was hungry to do. Luckily that happened for me.

"I want chances. I want three or four chances. On Saturday, one was enough.

"You have to be clinical and I will take that. But, ideally, I want more.

"That is what I am here to do, whether it is my first touch or my fifth. I will always take a goal against Derby, no matter how it comes.

"There are a lot of games coming up and the manager likes to rotate things. We all just try to fit into that and play as many games as possible.

"I want to be playing every single game. But I have three goals and two wins against Derby now and I will take that every single season."

Earnshaw believes Forest held the advantage over their opponents before a ball had even been kicked, following their recent demolition of the Rams at the City Ground – and because they knew what to expect at Pride Park following their difficult visit there last season.

"I think we had a calmness about us. That might be because of the experiences of last year, when we came to Derby," he said.

"That will have helped. We were a lot more confident and a lot calmer.

"You could see in our attitude that we were thinking 'whatever you throw at us, we can handle it'.

"You could actually feel that. We took what they had to give us, in terms of attacking threat.

"And that City Ground win did make a difference because you could see Derby were not as confident about handling us. They knew we were a big threat and capable of scoring goals.

"We are very lively and we like to break and play football. They knew that and it made them tentative.

"We want people to respect us and give us the accolades. We want people to view us as being dangerous.

"You can win games before they even kick off, if you can get teams to be scared of you. It gives you an extra edge, having that fear factor."

The challenge for Forest now is to build on their recent run of form, according to Earnshaw.

"We have a determined bunch of boys that want to do well and we all help each other," he said. "We have to keep things going.

"Our defence did really well, they really kept things tight and gave us a base on which to build.

"We knew we would not concede, which allowed us to go forwards with confidence in search of a goal.

"We desperately want to win, particularly at Derby. But we have done that and now we have to move on.

"We have to maintain this form over what is going to be a busy run of games. That is what we have to focus on."