City have more or less proved this season that they don't do smash and grab raids, unless they're playing Derby, of course.

The home fixture against the talented but lightweight rams was one of the games of the season, simply because City won it after being outfought, outrun and outmanoeuvred in just about every aspect of football.

As for this return game, in front of a packed but still soulless Pride Park (easily the most out-in-the-sticks new ground of them all), City took the lead against the run of play and then held on and held on and held on. Only in the last 15 minutes did Peter Taylor's men look likely to increase the advantage and seal the win, but as the chances were spurned, Derby crept back in with a confusing but, in hindsight, correctly awarded penalty.

With the fatigue factor of having to breathe for 90 minutes two days earlier (certainly the Burnley game offered no fatigue factor in terms of running, shooting and generally being arsed), the manager made a number of alterations. Kevin Ellison, Darryl Duffy, Alton Thelwell, Ryan France and Andy Dawson were all dropped - with the latter two not making the bench, likewise Stuart Elliott - and in came Billy Paynter, Craig Fagan, Scott Wiseman, John Welsh (hurray!) and Alan Rogers. Stuart Green got the left flanker's short straw while Mr Taylor again indicated that he believed Paynter would only ever play as a striker again if Jon Parkin was not available. So, to wit - Boaz Myhill between the sticks, behind Wiseman, Leon Cort, Damien Delaney and Rogers; Paynter, Welsh, skipper Keith Andrews and Green in the mids; Parkin and Fagan up top.

Early chants from a loud but not voluminous Derby chorus line was quickly drowned out by the cruel and mildly amusing Tiger roar of "Derby's going bust". Little was shown on the pitch in the first 20 minutes aside from Derby's superb playmaker Inigo Idiakez doing his usual spraying-the-ball-about-while-seeking-a-mirror routine. City looked tired, despite the alterations, and spent much of the opening spell in cautionary mode; a trait we normally only show away from home when we go a goal up.

Fagan was the early exception. Disappointing at Sheffield United and thereby deservedly dropped for the Burnley game (for which hindsight suggests he might be grateful), he trotted and skipped across the whole Derby defence for much of the first half hour, doing the sprint work on the right flank of which the sluggish and scared Paynter was patently incapable, while also giving the Derby central defenders ample food for thought and supplying a regular runner for Green's refreshingly rediscovered brand of forward thinking football.

Fagan took one of Green's tempters down the left flank and crossed instantly for Parkin, but the bedraggled Beast mistimed his left foot swing and ballooned the ball high over the bar; Fagan then hit a snapshot on the run which Derby keeper Lee Camp watched wide, almost unaware that a strike at his goal had been taken at all.

Derby, who'd enjoyed the main course of possesion, upped their game, and Idiakez gave nippy striker Tommy Smith an opportunity which, from a suspiciously offisde position, he thumped right at Myhill. Morten Bisgaard then sent Lee Holmes away from Wiseman down the left, and his cross was hilariously ankled over the bar by Paul Peschisolido. Derby were now in complete control of the half, a fact which made City's opener on 33 minutes all the more galling, not to mention gleeful from this end.

And what a goal it was, too. Green's ineptitude for much of this season, and the vitriol from within certain online portals which came with it, is now a mere memory on the backburner, if not completely distant yet. Having won us the home game against Derby with that late penalty, he put us ahead in the return fixture with a divine rising shot, through the near post angle, from a good 30 yards out after Rogers threw to Fagan whose cross was cleared on to the Green instep. He didn't stop and think; he just thumped it. Magnificently.

Green jogged the length of the pitch to the City fans, one finger raised and a grin the size of Brian Clough Way, to salute another chapter in his rebirth over the last two months, and those mouthy Derby fans to our right completely shut up. We didn't hear another peep from them at all. So, once again, we found ourselves in one of those new stadia where the silence was deafening - unless you were in the City end - and this was more of a shame because Derby's away contingent were so superb when they came to us.

Ten minutes more elapsed before strutting Premiership ref Andy D'Urso blew for half time. Much like Derby at our place, we were pondering at the urinals and in the hot dog queue how on earth we were ahead here. Then the monitors above us reminded us with a brief highlights package, culminating in another loud cheer via the concourse when the Green goal was shown. It looked as ace as we suspected it was once our long-distance viewpoint was taken away.

The early part of the second half was dominated not by activity on the grass, but by the City fans all watching two solitary Derby lads, in the back row of their stand, being told by some officious div in a flourescent jacket to sit down or, as the gesture from the jobsworth clearly indicated, they'd be thrown out. They did sit down. For all those of us who plead for standing at games, this was a moment to empathise, although that soon dissolved when someone began a chant of "sit down, or they'll throw you out" and folk joined in - including the section of City contingent who were on their feet throughout.

Derby took some early command but their overall gameplan and composure got worse. Idiakez, a commandant of the highest calibre, got shirty when he was brutally but fairly tackled and was rightly shown yellow when he retaliated at the upstart - Fagan - who dared to stop him from posing on the ball.

Peschisolido had, by this stage, scuffed one chance back to himself and hit the rebound at Myhill, and then Miles Addison headed an Idiakez free kick straight at City's custodian. Derby made changes which involved a smattering of applause from the longer-standing City fans for ex-Tiger Adam Bolder as he wandered on to the pitch, but he didn't get much chance to show how far he has really come since Brian Little chucked him into our midfield at the age of 19 and promptly flogged off the potential a few months later.

City finally began to look interested in killing this off in the closing quarter. Andrews curled a free kick wide; Fagan scuttled down the left and put a peach of a cross on to the Beast's instep but the ball was clattered into the ground and blocked by a very brave Richard Jackson. Green took the corner and Cort headed it over.

Mr Taylor threw Ellison on for Paynter, and though he got the ever-generous applause from the City faithful as he trudged off, it surely has been clarified once and for all that playing Paynter down the right does not work. He has no real pace; no inkling as to which positions both offensively and defensively he should take; and no real facility to do anything with the ball other than look behind to his full back. Mr Taylor clearly has plans for Paynter, but whether they extend beyond keeping the bench warm in case the Beast does a hamstring remains to be seen.

Ellison's introduction was a straight swap, bafflingly, as Green stuck to the left hand side. City kept pressing and a good Wiseman throw reached Parkin near the byline. The Beastly strength was in evidence again as he pulled away and laid a gorgeous ball back for Green, who was only denied a clinching double salvo by a superb tip over from Camp. Rogers took the corner, Delaney leapt and missed, but Cort made far post contact and the header was blocked on the line by Marc Edworthy. Ellison then turned and fired a low one on target which Camp stretched to keep out; Cort rose to yet another corner and headed over. This was all after the 70th minute - City seemed to be going for it, for once, and all bar that last Cort chance were on target and forcing Derby to work.

There were fewer than five minutes left when Derby began to push forward more perilously and City, with a rather crushing sense of inevitability, let them. That said, crosses were too long and passes were wayward, and it seemed that all City needed to do was keep some discipline and a double was theirs.

On 88 minutes, substitute Giles Barnes arrowed in another high one and Peschisolido got between Wiseman and Cort as the ball began to drop. A shrill, followed by a speed-of-sound noise of joy from the opposite end and suddenly we realised that D'Urso had awarded a penalty. There was still confusion as to why this was so as we left the ground five minutes later, but Smith sent Myhill the wrong way and earned Derby a staggering 20th draw of the season.

A push by Wiseman, or backing in by Cort? The former it would seem, especially as Mr Taylor went on record afterwards to say that Wiseman admitted the offence in the dressing room and the penalty was justified. Okay, though this doesn't stop us believing that D'Urso put on an overbearing, stunted and limelight-craving performance with the whistle which disallowed much flow to a game which had potential but largely wimped out.

Another draw, another indication of progress and the season could be classed as done. Main positives came from the performances of Fagan and Green, whose goal should be repeated on KC concourse monitors until the end of time; a stark negative again shaped up in the form of Paynter the wonderless winger. Mr Taylor should either drop him entirely from the XI for the remaining two games, or give him a Burgess-esque run-out at Watford with Parkin rested, knowing his work is done.

Our final two opponents are in the play-offs already so expect a send-off atmosphere against Preston at the KC next week and probably a Burberry-dominated pitch invasion afterwards. But don't expect much decent football. We're all played out. (MR)