Wayne Rooney was ‘happy with a point’ as Derby County played out a 0-0 draw at home to Swansea City on Saturday afternoon.
The entertaining Sky Bet Championship encounter ended with the spoils shared at Pride Park Stadium.
Jake Bidwell went closest for a Swansea side who controlled possession for long spells, but the full-back was denied by Derby goalkeeper Ryan Allsop.
At the other end Tom Lawrence drew a triple save from Swansea goalkeeper Ben Hamer early in the second half.
The draw meant Derby extended their unbeaten run in the league on home territory this season to six games after picking up two wins and three draws in their previous five outings at Pride Park.
Rooney was encouraged by the way his players rolled up their sleeves to grind out a result against last season’s beaten play-off finalists.
Speaking to RamsTV after the final whistle, Rooney commented: “I thought it was a very difficult game and Swansea moved around well, which we knew they would do, and they caused us problems.
“We changed our shape and after that we looked a threat and created a few good chances in the second half.
“We knew we would struggle to implement our game on them, so it was about defending well and trying to possibly get a goal on the break.
“We had to dig in and try to keep a clean sheet. Overall, it is a good point. Everyone worked extremely hard and while it was frustrating to not play better than we did, we are happy to take a point and move on.”
He added: “We had to change at half-time in terms of the shape; it wasn’t down to performance that Ravel Morrison came off at the break but tactically we had to switch it.
“The lads did well to adjust. We tried to use Festy Ebosele pace to get in behind them when he came on, but it wasn’t to be.”
Derby have the joint best defensive record in the Championship with just eight goals conceded in their opening 11 league matches.
They have kept four clean sheets in the process and Rooney is pleased with the side’s ability to keep their opponents at bay.
Rooney said: “The defensive performance was good today and it has been this season.
“We know we don’t score freely right now so we know we need to be hard to beat and we need to make sure we work hard to keep clean sheets.
“Teams aren’t creating that much against us. For example, Swansea had a lot of the ball but they didn’t break us down.”
Derby now have two weeks until their next league fixture, owing to the latest international break, when they head north to face Preston North End at Deepdale on Saturday 16th October (3pm kick-off).