NIGEL Clough was delighted to see Kris Commons return to action for Derby County last night but warned they will have to be careful with the Scottish international.

Commons made his first appearance of the pre-season in the 3-2 victory over Notts County at Meadow Lane after struggling with a hamstring injury.

Playing on the left, his cross 11 minutes from time deceived Notts' goalkeeper Russell Hoult for the winning goal. But Commons was not due to play.

Clough said: "We had no desire to include him right up to lunchtime but when Chris Porter and Shaun Barker dropped out we were low on numbers because a majority of the lads had played at Matlock on Monday night.

"Kris is still well short fitness-wise, as you saw, but we thought 'let's throw him out there for half an hour and see how he goes'.

"We have to be careful with him because he is still behind in the pre-season work but he didn't do bad for his first 30 minutes.

"There were glimpses of what he can do and that's all we will probably see for the next few weeks until he gets up to speed fitness-wise.

"It's good to have him out there as another option."

Derby will now check on Commons before deciding when he should play next.

"It is a case of being careful with him," said Clough. "We will see how he is in the next couple of days and then he may have a run on Thursday or Friday at Burton or Alfreton, and then we will see what he feels like at the weekend for the Stoke game."

New signing Shaun Barker, Lee Croft and Giles Barnes were left out of the Notts game as a precaution.

"Shaun just felt his thigh after training but we hope he should be OK for the weekend. We will know more in the next day or two," said Clough.

Barker's absence and Dean Leacock's injury meant left-back Jay McEveley was asked to play centre-back alongside Miles Addison. Jake Buxton had played at Matlock the previous night.

"Jay, despite giving away an own goal and being involved in their equaliser, battled away and got into the game," said Clough, who was also "very, very pleased" with the display of Steve Davies up front.

But the Rams boss admits he is worried about Porter's recurring hip problem.

The striker played for an hour against Exeter City at the weekend but is sidelined again by the problem that ended last season early for him.

"He was absolutely fine after 60 minutes at Exeter but felt his hip again on Tuesday morning, which is quite worrying," said Clough.

"We will assess that in the next couple of days.

"It is strange because he can play on Saturday pain-free and feels fine afterwards, then it starts nagging him again.

"So it is not something that is there constantly. It is something that comes and goes."