Martyn Waghorn scored in his first start of the season after returning from injury, but Derby County settled for a 1-1 draw against local rivals Nottingham Forest.
The Rams found the back of the net for a second time after Lyle Taylor equalised for Forest. Kamil Jozwiak expertly finished past Brice Samba, but Waghorn was adjudged to have been offside and Jowiak was denied his first Derby County goal.
After coming off the bench against Huddersfield Town on Tuesday night, Waghorn was named in Phillip Cocu’s starting XI to break the deadlock at the City Ground midway through the first-half from a free-kick and didn’t miss a beat in the 86 minutes he played on his return.
David Marshall was called into action just three minutes after kick-off when former Ram Cyrus Christie cut back for Taylor to run on and pull the trigger. The Derby stopper read it well and dived to deny Forest the early lead.
From there, the Rams did well to nullify the Reds’ attack for the remainder of the half as they squeezed dangerman Joe Lolley out from causing too much trouble and limited their shots.
Jason Knight was particularly menacing in the middle of the park for Derby injecting his energy into the game to get everywhere on the pitch and won three free-kicks in the opening stages.
The first real chance for Derby came from his partner in central midfield, Graeme Shinnie with a powerful strike in the 26th minute.
Andre Wisdom sent a long ball into the box and Christie only managed to clear it as far as the Scotsman just outside the area who hurtled his effort towards the top corner, but it was met by a diving Brice Samba to palm it away.
As 30 minutes hit the clock, Derby took the lead. Once again Knight was brought to the floor after receiving the ball following good work by Jozwiak to skip past two markers and lay-off for the midfielder. Waghorn elected to take the free-kick from a central position, 25 yards out and he did so beautifully.
He forward struck the underside of the crossbar and the bounce crossed the line and the power of the shot saw it richochet off the ground and into the roof of the net.
The visitors came so close to going 2-0 up just seven minutes later with Shinnie again coming close. Tom Lawrence made the break down the pitch from a Forest corner.
He made it all the way down the left flank and spotted Shinnie running on into the middle of the area. The cross was met by a weak header from the Forest defence into the path of Nathan Byrne. The full-back fed forward to Shinnie on the edge of the six-yard box but his shot was well blocked by Samba.
In the final minute of the half, Ryan Yates directed a header on target for Forest, but it was a comfortable save for Marshall.
Ten minutes into the second half, Lawrence found space from range and saw his effort deflected out for a corner. His delivery was then headed just wide by Waghorn.
From there, however, Forest grew stronger as the half went on and got back on level terms just after the hour mark. Samuel Ameobi ran in behind the defence to get on the end of a cross from Anthony Knockaert but somehow it was put out for a corner.
Knockaert delivered the set piece into the middle of the area and Ameobi used his body to get it down the the ground for Taylor to scoop into the back of the net.
With just more than ten minutes left to play, Derby had the ball in the back of the net for a second time, only for it to be disallowed during the celebrations.
Lawrence, who had put in another solid shift from coming back from injury, worked out an inch on space on the edge of the box to play through to Jozwiak to expertly drive his low effort into the bottom corner.
However, the linesman waved his flag for offside. Derby pushed to grab the three points, but were forced to settle for a draw at the City Ground.
Nottingham Forest: Samba, Christie, Figueiredo, Grabban (C) (Knockaert, 45), Ameobi, Yates, Lolley, Mckenna, Arter, Taylor, Ioannou
Unused Substitutes: Smith, Mbe Soh, Freeman, Jenkinson, Mighten, Sow
Derby County: Marshall, Wisdom, Shinnie, Jozwiak, Waghorn (Kazim-Richards, 86), Lawrence (Sibley, 86), Byrne (Holmes, 76), Clarke, Buchanan, Davies (C), Knight
Unused Substitutes: Roos, Forsyth, te Wierik, Bird