Derby County 1-1 Preston North End

Tom Barkhuizen, whose equaliser at Derby was his second goal in as many games, was playing in League Two for Morecambe as recently as January

Tom Barkhuizen rescued a draw for Preston at Derby with a strike five minutes into second-half stoppage time.

Matej Vydra's first goal since early October looked as if it would help the Rams leapfrog the visitors.

The Czech Republic striker turned the ball in after the visitors failed to deal with David Nugent's shot.

But Barkhuizen restored parity for North End when he scrambled the ball past Scott Carson following keeper Chris Maxwell's long ball into the box.

The late drama sees Preston remain ninth in the Championship table, nine points outside the play-off spots, while Derby are one point and one place further back.

After beating Barnsley on home soil at the weekend, and having not lost to Preston in their previous seven league meetings, the Rams would have been confident of strengthening their hopes of a play-off place with a second victory inside four days.

They started well, with Vydra heading just over the top from a pinpoint centre by Cyrus Christie, and the frontman also went close when he blasted over from Nugent's knockdown in a goalless first half.

Preston also had their moments, none more so than when Callum Robinson thought he had opened the scoring from Paul Gallagher's right-wing cross, only to see his header ruled out by an assistant referee's flag for offside.

Vydra did not let a third opportunity go begging five minutes into the second half when he showed predatory instincts to finish from six yards after Nugent's attempt deflected into his path.

But Simon Grayson's visitors did not give up the fight and pinned Derby back in the closing stages, almost levelling when Paul Huntington's header from a corner was cleared off the line by Christie, before Barkhuizen ensured a dramatic finale.

Derby manager Steve McClaren: "We defended the box with our lives but we failed on just one occasion and got punished, which I felt was very harsh on the players.

"We needed a second goal and then towards the end we needed to keep the ball better. We had our opportunities to bring it down and pass our way out, but we lumped it forward.

"There's no blame around for anyone because I thought the effort and attitude was there, but we just failed to hold on."

Preston manager Simon Grayson: "I think we showed a lot of character to keep going to the end, in the last 20 minutes we really stepped up the performance and asked questions of them.

"We suffered a late goal in the reverse fixture early in the season to lose the game so it was good to get a late one and get something out of it because I think we deserved it."

"Two more points would have made a lot of difference given that one or two of the results went in the chasing packs favour but there are still 10 games to go."