Michael Hoganson, 19, made his first start in place of the suspended left-back Gareth Roberts, and Clough said: "It's a fair result against a Wolves side battling to stay in the division.
"We don't have too many nil-nils here at Pride Park and in lots of ways it was a good one for us.
"Considering the back four we had out, we had four centre-halves missing and a first-choice left-back out so it's a brilliant clean sheet."
Clough also felt his team had been psychically drained by the effort which had gone into two away games in the space of four days.
"On Wednesday morning when the stats confirmed how much effort had gone into the game at Hull on Tuesday night with all the running, there wasn't too much energy out there and generally we were a bit flat to what we have been.
"But I think that shows progress because I think we would have lost that game in the last two or three seasons with the aerial advantage they had in this game."
