Derby County cruised to victory in their first game of the 2019/20 campaign on Monday night, brushing aside Huddersfield Town by two goals to one at the John Smith's Stadium.

Big things are expected of the Rams this season, with Phillip Cocu looking to come in and drive them towards to promotion, after suffering play-off heartbreak under Frank Lampard last term.

On Monday night, they came up against a Huddersfield Town side that also endured a bitterly disappointing end to last season, culminating in relegation from the Premier League after spending two seasons in the top-flight.

Jan Siewert's side will also have aspirations of winning promotion back to the top-flight this term, but it was Derby who came out well on top on a humid Monday evening in West Yorkshire.

Goals from Tom Lawrence sent the Rams on their way to securing a win in their first game of the new campaign, and the Welshman was definitely their talisman in the 2-1 victory.

Here, we shine a spotlight on the attacker's night, to see why he deserved his Sky Bet Man of the Match award.

What a time it was for Lawrence to put in arguably his best ever performance in a Derby shirt - the 25-year-old was a constant threat for the Rams throughout the encounter, and Huddersfield just couldn't cope with his movement.

He started on the left-hand side of a 4-3-3 system, but he often drifted inside to play in behind lone striker Martyn Waghorn, and that was easily his best trait of the night.

When moving into the middle, Huddersfield just couldn't pick him up - he found pockets of space with ease, accruing a pass into the final third success rate of 100%, and a forward pass success rate of 67%. A total pass success rate of 83% was also recorded.

Surprisingly enough, his dribble success rate was a reasonably low score of 20%, despite often going on mazy runs and being denied by a last-ditch challenge from Tommy Elphick in the first half.

Lawrence got his just rewards in the first half, scoring two goals that Cocu hailed as "world-class" in his post-match press conference, which FLW attended.

His first came after a defensive error from Elphick, whose attempted chest back to Kamil Grabara was too short. After Waghorn initially intercepted the pass, Lawrence was there to casually chip the ball into the empty net.

There was nothing fluky about his second goal, however. Again, he found space in between the thirds, twisting and turning on the edge of the area and curling the ball into the top corner with his left foot.

He had six shots in total, both of his two shots on target were goals, whilst he squandered two opportunities from free-kicks in a dangerous position on the edge of the box.

After losing Harry Wilson and Mason Mount in the summer, a lot of Derby players and fans alike will be relying on Lawrence to step up to the plate and supply the goals for the Rams this season.

If he keeps these kind of performances, then there is no reason to suggest that Derby can't have a positive season at all.