Derby County manager Steve McClaren admitted that his side had to dig deep to take a point during their 2-2 draw with Norwich City.
The Canaries needed a late equaliser from Steven Whittaker to secure a draw, but the former England boss insists that the stalemate was a good result following a string of challenging fixtures.
"You can't play away at Middlesbrough and then at home here against Chelsea and not have a dip energy wise and emotion wise and I think we saw that in the first 20 minutes," he told Derby's official website.
"There was no life or tempo to the game and you could see that Norwich are a very good team. The players, after that first 20 minutes, really raised the tempo and got the goal.
"It was one of those afternoons where there was a lot of mistakes, we had to dig in and we very nearly pulled it off."
The result leaves Derby in fifth place in the Championship, while Norwich occupy seventh spot.
Mark Langshaw
