Derby County held Manchester City to a 1-1 Premier League draw at Pride Park.

A Sun Jihai own goal gave the hosts the lead just after the second half restart, but City equalised through highly-rated youngster Daniel Sturridge in an even match.

In a surprisingly close first half both sides attacked with intent and had excellent chances to break the deadlock.

Vedran Corluka headed over from a Martin Petrov corner in the sixth minute, while Lewis Price bravely blocked at the feet of Darius Vassell on the quarter hour.

Price then took a blow to the head from the same man in a similar situation, receiving treatment for a head wound, while Derby themselves had some decent opportunities, the best falling to Robert Earnshaw, whose snap-shot from the edge of the box beat Joe Hart but hit the post before spinning wide.

City had one more good effort before the break, Vassell and Stephen Ireland somehow contriving not to convert Petrov's superb low centre, and the Premier League's bottom club looked fair value at 0-0.

And the Rams built on their first half performance, scoring straight from the kick-off when a positive run from Kenny Miller saw Hossam Ghaly have a speculative shot that took a massive deflection off Sun to bamboozle Hart and nestle in the bottom left corner.

But, just over a quarter of an hour later, City got themselves back on level terms with a classic display of counter-attacking football, their most dangerous ploy against a Derby back four not blessed with pace. Bulgaria winger Petrov once again used his pace to create an opening on the left wing, his low ball met by Sturridge who was left with a simple finish for his second goal in as many games.

Both sides seemed to settle for the point and, aside from the hosts threatening at set-pieces, the remainder of the match passed with little incident other than Ghaly's first league booking in a Derby shirt.

Derby still stay bottom after the point, although City move up one spot to sixth on account of Liverpool's defeat at West Ham.

Reda Maher / Eurosport