Derby County booked their place in the Championship playoff final at Wembley courtesy of a 4-1 win over Brighton & Hove Albion in their semi-final second leg at the iPro Stadium this evening.
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The Rams had chances to take the lead early in the first half with Andre Wisdom and Jake Buxton both testing Seagulls keeper Tomasz Kuszczak.
After pinning back the Brighton defence for most of the opening half-hour, they made their breakthrough when Craig Forsyth found Will Hughes and the youngster coolly slotted the ball into the Albion net.
Brighton's only bright moment of the opening period came when Jesse Lingard found Leonardo Ulloa and the forward almost levelled the second leg, but for Lee Grant's block.
Derby put the tie beyond doubt when a cross to the far post was headed back by Jamie Ward into the path of a grateful Chris Martin, who tucked the ball home to the elation of the majority inside the stadium.
The Rams made it 3-0 when George Thorne unleashed a thunderous drive from distance that Kuszczak was unable to get anywhere near.
Jeff Hendrick added goal number four for the hosts with three minutes remaining when he finished off a fine team move, before Kazenga LuaLua pulled back a consolation for the Seagulls late on to round off the scoring.
County will now face the winners of the other semi-final as Wigan Athletic and Queens Park Rangers meet on Monday at Loftus Road.
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