Derby County’s Under 23s were forced to settle for a point by Leicester City in a highly competitive clash at St George’s Park, in which neither team were in no mood to surrender anything.

In a contest of very few opportunities, Lewis Walker and Kellan Gordon registered the Rams’ best efforts in quick succession in the second half, whilst the visitors thought they had stolen all the points late on, but Elliott Moore only found the gloves of Kelle Roos from close range.The draw extends Derby Under 23s’ unbeaten run to five games in Premier League 2 Division 1, whilst they remain out of the relegation zone after Reading’s heavy 5-1 defeat to Liverpool in Wycombe.Anyone looking at the Division 1 table prior to kick-off would have had this meeting down as a ‘six-pointer’.Just a point separated the two sides at the bottom of the table and with both teams giving it everything in their respective missions to beat the drop to Division 2, the opening stages were tentative.Layton Ndukwu, the visitors’ most creative threat, had a speculative effort, from around the halfway line, that flew well wide, but that was the only notable effort on goal in a first half littered with nearly moments.Due to stern and stubborn defending, the Rams were unable to test Daniel Iversen in the Leicester goal over this period and with just two minutes of the first half remaining, Ndukwu went closest to breaking the deadlock, sending his free kick agonisingly wide of Roos’ near post.Far more football was played over the second 45 minutes, with the Rams controlling larger spells of possession, and with it, they created their best openings.Walker had the first, stinging the palms of Iversen with a low drive from the edge of the area, before Gordon forced a better save from the Foxes’ shot stopper minutes later.At the other end, Lamine Kaba Sherif should have done better with a left-wing cross that broke into his path in the area, but he scuffed his first-time effort and the danger was quickly cleared by Derby’s backline.As impressive as Leicester were defensively, Calum Macdonald and Joe Bateman, the two centre halves at the other end, were in outstanding form against a physical forward line deployed by the visitors, whilst Alefe Santos and Sven Karic were never beaten down their respective flanks.As the clock ticked down, Leicester were becoming more and more reliant on their counter attack game as Derby penned their opponents inside their own half.They didn’t, however, truly test Iversen again. Gordon, on the right, looked the most likely to create something, but he saw a number of his crosses snuffed out down the right.Deep into added time and with the game looking destined for a draw, Leicester did have one final chance to steal all three points.After the Rams failed to deal with a deep corner, the ball was headed back across goal to Moore, but the centre back did not connect properly with an attempted back heel as Roos got down to make a simple save as Wassall’s men were forced to settle for their third goalless draw of the campaign.Roos, Santos, Bateman, Macdonald, Karic; Bird, Elsnik, Babos; Gordon, Walker (Cresswell, 67), JakobsenCover, Ravas, Edwards, Mitchell-LawsonIversen, Johnson, Knight, Moore (C), Pascanu, Ndukwu, Kaba Sherif, Hammond, Debayo (Watts, 15), Muskwe, Gordon (Mitchell, 67)Wood, Bramley, Dewsbury-HallTweets by @ dcfcofficial