McClaren salutes County character

However, the Rams head coach remained proud of his players, despite not seeing them win any of their three matches in the past eight days.

McClaren's men came into Saturday's early kick-off against the Canaries on the back on successive defeats to Middlesbrough in the Championship and Chelsea in the Capital One Cup. They looked out of sorts from the off as the visitors made life difficult for them, disrupting Derby's usual rhythm.

Johnny Russell put them ahead though just before half-time and, after Cameron Jerome had equalised, Chris Martin's penalty looked like it would be enough for Derby to win the three points.

But Steven Whittaker struck in the 89th minute to make it 2-2 and Norwich had a chance to snatch victory in injury time, but Jerome blasted his effort over the crossbar from 12 yards out.

Despite the disappointment of conceding so late, McClaren was upbeat after the game.

"This was always going to be a difficult game - our third in a week coming off the back of the Boro game and the fabulous effort against Chelsea," said the former England manager.

"To get the players up for it emotionally was always going to be difficult. I was always wary of this game - against a very good Norwich team by the way who can bring on Nathan Redmond, Wes Hoolahan and Lewis Grabban. Wow, what a squad.

"We needed to show solidarity and togetherness, grit and determination and character. And we very nearly pulled it off. We nearly got beat in the end, but it was very important not to lose and I said that to the players.

"We made a lot of mistakes and that's what the third game brings you. There was fatigue at the end and mistakes creep in. I would say it was a very good chance for Norwich to win at Derby. Our preparation for this game was a lot different to that of Norwich.

"But you have a lot of games like this in a season and it is important you grind them out. We have done that today."

Norwich manager Neil Adams felt a draw was the least his side deserved.

He said: "We thoroughly deserved the equaliser we got and I thought we deserved to win, to be honest.

"Our plan nearly worked to perfection. They couldn't get into any rhythm. I watched them against Chelsea the other night and they got into rhythm many times that night - against a top, top team. So that tells you how well we did.

"We were playing well and felt we were unlucky to go into half-time 1-0 down. We had to be careful then not to throw it away and we got level before quickly falling behind again. Most teams would have crumbled after that but we dug in.

"The commitment and attitude was first class and we thoroughly deserved the equaliser we got late on.

"We won back-to-back games before today and we need to get back on rack and I thought we were the best team today."