JAMIE Ward will be aiming to heap more misery on Nottingham Forest fans at Pride Park Stadium this weekend.

Forest go into Sunday's showdown with Derby County second from bottom of the Championship – five points adrift of safety.

Both teams suffered defeats in midweek but the Rams have had the upper hand over their rivals so far this season.

Nigel Clough's men, currently 12th in the table, recorded a memorable 2-1 victory at the City Ground in September.

They lost Frank Fielding in only the second minute after the keeper was adjudged to have fouled Ishmael Miller in the area.

Andy Reid scored the resulting penalty but the 10-man Rams hit back against the odds to take the points thanks to goals from Ward and Jeff Hendrick.

Forest did the double over Derby last season but Ward hopes the tables will be turned this time around.

"With a bit of luck, we can repeat what we did at the City Ground," said the winger.

"They are going to want to get a bit of pride back and beat us but, hopefully, we won't let that happen.

"Hopefully, we can give them a little taste of what they gave the Derby fans last season.

"We'll be looking to push on and give them a good hiding."

Ward is reading little into Forest's current League position.

"Form goes out of the window in these kind of games," said the 25-year-old.

"They're not doing great at the moment but that doesn't matter in this game, because it's all about passion and spirit and winning the game for the fans."

Derby's six-match unbeaten run was ended by last weekend's FA Cup fourth round exit at the hands of Premier League Stoke City and they suffered their first League defeat of 2012 against Barnsley on Tuesday.

The Rams found themselves three down after half an hour at Oakwell.

Ward and debutant Tom Carroll pulled goals back after the interval but it was too little, too late for the visitors.

"We didn't turn up in the first half, which was disappointing," said Ward.

"We need to put everything into every match we play, because we're not good enough to just turn up and win games. We need to work hard and grind teams down.

"I don't know what happened – it was just one of those things. If we knew, we would never have done it in the first place.

"We're all battlers and the gaffer wants 100% from us every game. We didn't do that in the first half at Barnsley.

"Obviously, he got us going for the second half but we shouldn't need the manager to do that. We should do that ourselves."

Former Sheffield United man Ward endured a frustrating evening in Yorkshire, with the exception of his thunderous 69th-minute free kick.

"I was just thinking about hitting the target and I caught it very well," he said.

"It was moving all over the shop – one minute, it was going straight into the keeper's hands but it ended up in the back of the net."

Ward is confident Derby's disappointing first-half display against Barnsley will not be repeated this weekend.

"It's never good to lose and of course it's disappointing but that's football – you can't win every game," he said.

"Hopefully, it's just a blip and we've got it out of the way in time for Sunday.

"I'm still confident we're moving in the right direction."