A point apiece for Derby and Manchester City at freezing Pride Park will provide cold comfort for two struggling sides, both of whom will feel they could and should have won this match.

City, firmly entrenched in the Premiership relegation zone, will feel particularly aggrieved after a rare 90 minutes in which they can justifiably claim to have been the better team.

But the Rams will rue the fact that their hard-earned second-half lead lasted only two minutes and they remain teetering on the brink of the drop zone themselves.

Rams captain Darryl Powell had put Derby ahead three minutes into the second half when Deon Burton set Malcolm Christie free on the right and his low cross was somehow bundled over the line from point-blank range.

Given the abysmal nature of the first half in which neither side managed to fashion a decent chance it looked like a lead which would last.

Indeed, the goal had come just one minute after Danny Tiatto and Gerard Wiekens had combined to provide the game with its first shot on target.

But it took City just those 120 seconds to fashion an equaliser from another Tiatto corner.

The Australian whipped the ball straight onto the head of Howey 20 yards from goal and he bulleted it into the top corner of the net past the helpless Mart Poom.

As the game opened up and the desperation to win overshadowed the early tension, both sides came close to a winner.

Rams' top scorer Christie was the guiltiest party, misjudging his attempted lob over Nicky Weaver on 77 minutes and allowing the City goalkeeper to palm the ball out for a corner.

But City also came close through substitutes Shaun Goater and Shaun Wright-Phillips as the excitement belatedly mounted.

Paulo Wanchope was only denied with five minutes to go when he galloped goalwards but was denied by a brave dive at his feet by the alert Poom.

The belated excitement in a comparatively barmy half came after a dreadful first 45 minutes which provided no corners and not a sign that either of these clubs was going to turn one for the foreseeable future.

Darren Huckerby had the best chance for a City side which shaded the virtual non-event, put through by Tiatto after 25 minutes but curling his 18-yard shot wide of Poom's left-hand post when he should have scored.

Poom's alertness had prevented City taking a second-minute lead when he leapt to fist clear Alfie Haaland's cross which was veering towards the head of Wanchope.

With City finding it hard to feed Huckerby, Wanchope provided most of what, at a stretch, could be termed the visitors' threat.

Tiatto's two long-range free-kicks, which went high and wide, provided the best of the rest from City - but at least they were a more prominent attacking force than Derby, who looked tense and nervy even with the returning Taribo West shoring up their rearguard.

Their best chances in a dismal spell even by their poor standards came in the last five minutes of the half, when Burley narrowly failed to feed Christie in the box, Adam Murray's run was effectively stopped by the City defence and Danny Higginbotham shot way over from 30 yards.

But the goals livened up the proceedings as both sides sensed the vital points were there for the taking.

City were given fresh impetus with the introductions of Wright-Phillips and Goater for Tiatto, who left the field with a neck injury, and Huckerby respectively.

Wright-Phillips caused problems with his pace and was only denied a clear shot on goal after 75 minutes by the timely intervention of Horacio Carbonari.

Goater then dribbled a shot into the side-netting before Wanchope's near miss as the tension mounted and the slippery, bone-hard pitch merely exaggerated the anxiety.

But for managers Joe Royle and Jim Smith, the conclusion is that the anxiety is set to continue for a long time yet.

Teams:

Derby: Poom, Mawene, Carbonari, West, Delap, Higginbotham (Morris 87), Burley, Powell, Murray (Martin 71), Burton, Christie.

Subs Not Used: Bragstad, Boertien, Oakes.

Booked: Mawene, West.

Goals: Powell 49.

Man City: Weaver, Howey, Ritchie (Granville 80), Prior, Dunne, Whitley, Wiekens, Haaland, Tiatto (Wright-Phillips 52), Huckerby (Goater 68), Wanchope.

Subs Not Used: Grant, Nash.

Booked: Tiatto, Wanchope.

Goals: Howey 51.

Att: 31,174

Ref: J Winter (Stockton-on-Tees).