Derby County 0-0 Stoke City: Rams miss chance to move out of bottom three
- Published
Derby County are currently unbeaten in the five games that interim boss Wayne Rooney has taken sole charge of
Derby County missed the chance to move out of the Championship's bottom three as they played out a goalless draw with Stoke City.
Morgan Whittaker could have given the Rams the lead in the first half but saw his deflected shot saved by Stoke goalkeeper Josef Bursik.
Derby went close again after the break when Matt Clarke fired across the face of goal following Martyn Waghorn's free-kick.
A fine performance from Bursik helped Stoke secure a point as he made a good save to deny Clarke's dangerous close-range header late on.
The result means Derby remain in 22nd place in the Championship table, but victory against the Potters would have taken them out of the drop zone after 21st-placed Nottingham Forest lost at home to Brentford.
Stoke stay in eighth and are now two points outside the play-off places.
The Rams are now on a five-game run without defeat during Wayne Rooney's interim spell in charge, but are winless in their past 12 games at home under the former England striker and ex-boss Phillip Cocu.
With Tom Lawrence forced off through injury midway through the first half, Rooney sent on Whittaker and he almost made an immediate impact but Bursik, who enjoyed a good game for Stoke, pulled off a fine save.
Derby County interim manager Wayne Rooney told BBC Radio Derby:
"We created some good chances. I thought we played some really good football, especially first half when I thought we dominated.
"It was one of those game where you know if we didn't get a goal in that period, Stoke would have a few moments.
"But really I don't think they troubled us at all, so I'm pleased with the clean sheet again
Stoke City manager Michael O'Neill told BBC Radio Stoke:
"We knew it'd be a difficult game coming here. We were running on fumes a little bit, to be honest - [Harry] Souttar, [Steven] Fletcher and [Jordan] Thompson came back into the team today having trained very little after injury.
"I was pleased overall that we didn't lose the game. I thought first half we were too passive, but second half we were much better and the game could have gone either way in the end.
"The positive was another clean sheet, which was good. On the day, we probably just didn't have enough quality when we had the opportunity to win the game."