Nigel Clough will be presented to Derby County supporters before tonight's Carling Cup semi-final, first leg against Manchester United at Pride Park after admitting that the emotional pull of managing the club that his father made great was too powerful to resist.

The former Nottingham Forest and England forward has signed a three and a half-year contract to take charge of the Coca-Cola Championship club from tomorrow after leading Burton Albion to the verge of the Football League. Clough, 42, succeeds Paul Jewell, who resigned last week. Gary Crosby, Clough's former Forest team-mate, will become assistant manager after Chris Hutchings, Jewell's No 2, left the club last night. David Lowe, the head of academy coaching, will take charge of the team this evening.

Clough, who won 14 caps and also played for Liverpool and Manchester City, has spent ten years building up Burton, who are 13 points clear at the top of the Blue Square Premier after 11 successive victories.

It was against Sir Alex Ferguson's side that Burton captured the nation's imagination three years ago, when United were held to a goalless draw on a beach of a pitch at the Pirelli Stadium in the third round of the FA Cup. Television captured William, Nigel's son, sitting in the dugout, just as Nigel had sat alongside his own father when Brian Clough was forging his legendary reputation at Derby and Forest in the 1970s.

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Even last week, Clough - who joined Burton as player-manager in 1998 - was undecided about leaving because he believed that he had not accomplished his mission of leading the club out of non-League football. But once Adam Pearson, the Derby chairman, and Ben Robinson, his Burton counterpart, started talking, Clough was left in no doubt that his dues had been paid.

Yesterday morning he was focused on trying to get Burton's pitch ready for a midday inspection for the scheduled league match against Torquay United, but once that was postponed, his departure drew nearer. Roy McFarland has been appointed Burton manager until the end of the season.

Pearson believes that Clough is “the right man at the right time”. He said: “He's done his apprenticeship and is ready for a big stage. He understands the football club and he's a disciple of the way the supporters like to see the game played. He has the right man-management skills for this squad.”

Comparisons between Clough and his father - who died in 2004 - are inevitable, although the new Derby manager takes more after his mother, Barbara, in temperament and prefers to shun the limelight. “Nigel is very much his own man,” Pearson said. “He has different characteristics and a different personality to his father. But he does want to create the same dynasty and legacy as his father did.”

Clough is likely to please supporters and players with his preferred style of play. A close friend of Stuart Pearce, the England Under-21 head coach with whom he played at Forest, he lives near Derby and will make up for any lack of knowledge of the Championship with his desire to get out on the training ground.

While some question whether he would have been better off breaking his teeth in League management away from the East Midlands, he is conscious that Derby are superbly set up for progress. He inherits a team in eighteenth place in the second tier, just as his father took over a team in seventeenth place at the same level in 1967, but the Moor Park training ground and Pride Park stadium are straight out of the Premier League guide book.

“This is a fantastic opportunity for me and one that I relish,” Clough said. “I know the club inside out. It has always had a special place in mine and my family's heart. This is one of the most exciting jobs in football.

“Derby County has everything: tremendous support, a first-class stadium, magnificent training facilities and an ambitious ownership group looking to grow the club even farther. Also, we have a terrific squad of players already here and I can't wait to start working with them. This is going to be a tremendous challenge.”

Clough's first game in charge will be Saturday's visit to Cardiff City, his first home game against Queens Park Rangers a week later. Then comes the return leg of tonight's tie, at Old Trafford, before an FA Cup fourth-round tie at home to Forest, with Billy Davies, the former Derby manager, in charge of the “old enemy”, on Friday, January 23, live on TV. Maybe Clough Jr recognises a script when he sees one.