City and Derby County shared the points in an exciting 2-2 draw on Saturday afternoon at Pride Park Stadium.
Cian Ashford and Yousef Salech netted for the Bluebirds, but they were twice pegged back by the defiant hosts.
Brian Barry-Murphy named a back four of full-backs, with Gabriel Osho joining Calum Chambers, Will Fish and Dylan Lawlor in being unavailable for this fixture due to injury. This meant a central defensive pairing of Joel Bagan and Perry Ng, with Calum Scanlon on the left and Ronan Kpakio on the right. Rubin Colwill came back into the starting XI for this game, replacing Chris Willock, with Jack Moylan moving to the left wing.
The hosts had three big chances in the first three minutes. Ng needed to be alert to deny midfielder Bobby Clark in the first minute before his goalkeeper, Nathan Trott, was thrust into action to keep out Corey Blackett-Taylor's curling effort one minute later. Ng's makeshift central defensive partner Bagan made a large impact on the game after three minutes, clearing off the line from Bobby Clark's effort after Trott had initially kept out Oscar Fraud's effort.
The Bluebirds grew into this encounter and had two good opportunities of their own. Colwill's powerful strike was tipped onto the crossbar 12 minutes in, while Jacob Zetterström made another impressive stop to keep out Yousef Salech's header on the goal line six minutes later.
The game's first goal came from the corner after Salech's chance, with BBM's side taking the lead. Alex Robertson's corner kick was initially cleared, with Kpakio diverting the ball back into the middle of the box, where Cian Ashford swept it low into the back of the net.
County's powerful forward Carlton Morris was always going to cause our defence trouble, and he levelled the match after 26 minutes. Morris powered through before slotting home composedly.
It was an end-to-end game with both sides seeing plenty of the ball. City retook the lead before the break, with forward Yousef Salech getting his first goal of the Sky Bet Championship season. Ollie Tanner broke down the right before finding Colwill in the middle in space. Rubin made the right decision in laying the ball off to Salech rather than shooting, with our number nine taking the chance clinically.
It was the Bluebirds celebrating before the break, but the Rams quickly after as they levelled the match for a second time. Midfielder Clark with a powerful finish beyond Trott to make it two each after 49 minutes.
The second half was a much less open game in terms of goalscoring opportunities. Morris headed wide for Derby from a good position in the second half while Moylan and second half substitute Chris Willock struck off target for the Bluebirds.
Both sides attempted to find a winner while taking no risks in defence, which made for a tense albeit mostly chance free end to the match. Substitute David Turnbull shot over with 88 gone.
Neither side could capitalise in six minutes of added time, with the Bluebirds taking a point from their first away game of the Sky Bet Championship season.
FINAL SCORE: DERBY COUNTY 2-2 CARDIFF CITY
Derby County: Zetterström, Langås, Clark, Morris (Salvesen 88'), Taylor, Mowatt, Johnston (Nyambe 88'), Travis, Sanderson, Fraulo (Hedges 65'), Blackett-Taylor (Brewster 65').
Subs Not Used: Vickers, Forsyth, Bilbija, Ward, Eames.
Cardiff City: Trott, Bagan, Moylan (J.Colwill 71'), Salech, R.Colwill (Turnbull 59'), Tanner (Davies 71'), Robertson, Scanlon, Ng, Kpakio, Ashford (Willock 59').
Subs Not Used: Tyrer, Turner, Tankiewicz, Anyadike, Robinson.