Premiership: Christie regret at double miss

Malcolm Christie is still re-living the memory of his two second-half misses in Saturday's 1-1 draw with Manchester City.

The Derby County striker was guilty of untypical profligacy in front of goal, and coach Colin Todd's assertion that the point gained could keep the Rams up will be cold comfort to Christie.

The point was enough to take them above Coventry, but Darryl Powell's opener could have been built upon. Instead Steve Howey powered home a 50th minute headed equaliser and the spoils were shared.

Jim Smith's side would have been sitting six points ahead of their relegation rivals had top-scorer Christie taken advantage when he was put through with only City keeper Nicky Weaver to beat.

First Christie played his second touch too strongly as he was attempting to round Weaver - and 10 minutes later misjudged an attempted lob and allowed the City number one to palm the ball out for a corner.

Christie said: "To be honest we should have won the game, especially with the couple of chances I had, but it wasn't to be.

"Both sides started off very nervously and the quality of football in the first half reflected our league positions.

"We have been tending to take the lead in home games and hang on and I thought that would be the case today."

Christie's co-culprit in the Rams' failure to pick up another win was Nigerian defender Taribo West, who rounded off a week of confusion around his Pride Park future with an uncharacteristically sloppy performance in the middle of his club's back five.

Todd added: "We've been found wanting by players not taking their responsibilities.

"Taribo did not pick his man up at the corner. If Taribo had made sure of his responsibilities then Howey would have found it difficult to get a free header in."