Jackson Irvine converted Lucas Akins' cross after 12 minutes to settle a match between sides with only 10 miles between them geographically but worlds apart in terms of their footballing history
Clough spent four years at the iPro Stadium before being fired in 2013, and asked what it meant to get one over his former side replied: "We didn't leave, we were sacked
"But it doesn't do anything except give us three points towards our total of trying to stay up, nothing else
"It was hard work and grit
We played enough at times but we were under the cosh second half because of Derby's pure quality
"That's what we've got to do - we've got to run harder and be stronger and fitter than any other team because if it comes down to quality, we're going to be down there in the Championship
"We've kept our first clean sheet of the season as well which is the most pleasing thing."
When Derby were last relegated from the Premier League in 2008, Burton - who Clough was managing during a successful first spell - were still a year away from reaching the Football League
However, the Brewers go into the international break two points better off than their illustrious neighbours
"It's absolutely ridiculous," Clough added
"We'll have a good week - the lads have got a few days off
"It's just another step in the wonderful story that's been going on here? I never dreamt we'd be in the same league, never mind winning."
Australia international Irvine scored with his head for the third league game running and his early strike proved enough in front of a lively crowd of 6,746 at the Pirelli Stadium
Burton made the brighter start and they nearly went ahead after six minutes when Chris O'Grady won the ball in a dangerous area and found Lloyd Dyer, whose effort was well stopped by Scott Carson
Derby were wasteful in possession and when they eventually carved out a chance after 20 minutes Johnny Russell lost his footing at the crucial moment after a neat one-two with Chris Martin on the edge of the box
Derby's best chance of the opening period came three minutes before the break when Tom Ince broke down the right and picked out Martin, but his shot was charged down
Derby introduced Darren Bent and Manchester United loanee James Wilson in a bid to up their pedestrian first-half tempo, and McLaughlin had to be alert to parry away Craig Bryson's dangerous cross-shot
But Burton's tremendous work rate restricted the visitors to half-chances and Will Hughes' hopeful 30-yarder, which sailed well over the bar with three minutes left, summed up their evening
Derby boss Nigel Pearson admitted his side were failing to live up to their pre-season expectations of promotion challengers
"At the moment it's typical of where we are in that we are collectively underperforming," he said
"We've got players who are not in form and consequently we've not taken chances when we've made them, we're not scoring enough goals and we're not being creative enough so it's very frustrating for us
"It's another disappointing result for us and worse it's a disappointing performance."
Source : PA
Source: PA