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Derby County were forced to settle for a share of the spoils in a 1-1 draw at home to Portsmouth in the Sky Bet Championship in their final fixture before Christmas.
Portsmouth took the lead after six minutes through Callum Lang, but the Rams enjoyed plenty of the ball after falling behind and drew level late in the first half through as Hayden Matthews turned Joe Ward’s cross into own goal under pressure from Patrick Agyemang.
It was a game of few clear cut-opportunities, despite the best efforts of both sides, and the point means the Rams are now unbeaten in their last three league fixtures.
Derby went into the clash with Pompey looking to build on a positive return of four points from their previous two matches, having fought back to claim a late 1-1 draw with Millwall ten days ago prior to claiming a resounding 3-0 victory at Sheffield Wednesday on Monday in front of the Sky Sports cameras.
Head Coach John Eustace made one change from the win at Hillsborough with Australian international Callum Elder replacing Craig Forsyth at left-wing back, meaning striker Rhian Brewster started for the second successive match after shaking off a hamstring issue.
Derby started the game brightly attacking towards the North Stand and registered the first shot in anger inside the opening two minutes as Brewster let fly from distance, but his deflected effort was easily claimed by visiting goalkeeper Nicolas Schmid.
The Rams forced Schmid into another save a few minutes later as Bobby Clark latched onto Agyemang’s neat pass to the midfielder inside the box from the left. The on-loan FC Red Bull Salzburg player created room for a low strike, but saw his effort well pushed away by Schmid for a corner.
Portsmouth took the lead with six minutes played as they broke forward moments later on the counterattack to score from their first attack. Jacob Murphy burst into the Derby half and slipped a pass through to the right-side towards Lang, who drove into the box and fired a left-foot effort into the back of the net beyond Jacob Widell Zetterström.
Derby responded by having plenty of possession, resulting in some patient build-up play, but they were unable to carve out any opportunities in front of goal in the minutes after falling behind.
A Ward corner produced an opportunity for Brewster to get a shot away inside the box after 25 minutes, but a packed penalty area saw his cleanly-struck effort blocked and eventually cleared by the Portsmouth backline.
Ben Brereton Díaz had a long-range shot comfortably saved by Schmid on the half hour mark as Derby continued to try and find a way through the away side’s defence, which proved to be the Rams’ final opportunity of note before equalising in the final minute of normal time at the end of the first period.
Ward got away down the right, latching onto Brereton Díaz’s smart pass, and delivered a low centre across the six-yard box which was turned into his own net by Matthews under pressure from Agyemang.
Derby began the second half on the front foot and looking to get their noses in front for the first time on the day, but plenty of attacking intent didn’t produce any chances on goal before the hour mark.
Eustace made his first switch of the afternoon not long after the hour mark as the experienced Andi Weimann came on to replace Brewster to offer a fresh pair of legs at the top end of the pitch, while Lars-Jørgen Salvesen arrived shortly afterwards in place of Brereton Díaz.
Both teams tried to exert their authority in the closing stages to claim a winner, with Derby doing the pressing.
Dion Sanderson flashed an excellent ball across the six-yard box in the final minute which just evaded the onrushing Salvesen and Weimann shot straight at Schmid for Derby, while Agyemang had a header tipped over by Schmid deep into added time as the match ended all-square.
Derby County: Zetterström (GK), Clarke, Langås (C), Agyemang, Brewster (Weimann 68), Thompson, Elder, Ward, Brereton Díaz (Salvesen 77), Sanderson, Clark.
Substitutes Not Used: Vickers (GK), Forsyth, Batth, Blackett-Taylor, Jackson, Adams, Nelson.
Portsmouth: Schmid (GK), Devlin, Matthews, Poole, Williams, Kosznovszky (Pack 66), Dozzell, Lang, Chaplin (Segečić 66), Murphy (C) (Blair 53), Bishop.
Substitutes Not Used: Bursik (GK), Le Roux, Swift, Minhyeok, Umeh, Kirk.
28,877 (including 2,007 Portsmouth supporters).
Derby’s next Sky Bet Championship outing will see them make the journey to the West Midlands to face Birmingham City at St. Andrew's @ Knighthead Park on Boxing Day (12:30pm kick-off).
