Steve McClaren praises "heroic" Derby County effort

Derby County manager Steve McClaren has hailed his "heroic" players for holding out to record a 1-1 draw against local rivals Nottingham Forest this afternoon.

Ryan Shotton cancelled out Britt Assombalonga's earlier strike with 10 minutes remaining at the City Ground, but County were left hanging on when Jake Buxton was dismissed three minutes from time.

Forest were unable to find a winner, however, meaning that the Rams claimed a valuable point from the East Midlands derby.

"It was totally absorbing," McClaren told Sky Sports News. "Not a classic in terms of football but for a local derby, that's never going to be with a lot at stake.

"Like I said at the beginning, you can't win unless you've got 11 players on the park. Once we equalised, I thought we'd go on to win it.

"Then we dropped to 10 men - the players were heroic at the end for a good 12-15 minutes. We had to adjust with 10 men and showed great character. It's a big point for us."

Next up for Derby is a home meeting with Blackburn Rovers in the Championship on Wednesday night.