WAYNE ROONEY’S DERBY held Barnsley to a 0-0 draw as Valerien Ismael’s side extended their unbeaten run to 10 Sky Bet Championship games.
After picking up a point apiece, Barnsley remained in sixth as Derby climbed to 18th in the Championship standings.
Ismael made two changes from the side who beat Birmingham on Saturday. Conor Chaplin replaced Dominik Frieser and Toby Sibbick was preferred to Michael Sollbauer.
Rooney made five changes from the team who lost to Coventry on the weekend. Craig Forsyth, Lee Gregory, George Edmundson, Kamil Jozwiak and Teden Mengi replaced Lee Buchanan, Martyn Waghorn, Nathan Byrne, Patrick Roberts and Max Bird.
Ireland’s Jason Knight played the full 90-plus for the Rams, while underage international Louie Watson was an unused substitite.
Callum Britain had the first chance of the game. The Reds full-back fired over Kelle Roos’ crossbar with a quarter of an hour gone in South Yorkshire.
Cauley Woodrow followed for the hosts. Striking the ball from 20 yards out, the forward could not find the target as he searched for an opener.
Barnsley forward Daryl Dike could only steer his header wide as he latched onto a Brittain cross with the first half drawing to a close.
Moments later and Dike again tried his hand at a header. A comfortable stop for Roos, the striker directed a tame effort straight into the goalkeeper’s arms.
Colin Kazim-Richards concluded the opening chapter and fired into a wall of Barnsley defenders following a free-kick from 25 yards out.
Barnsley flew out of the blocks after the interval. Forcing Roos into a smart save with his feet, Chaplin almost steered home as he connected with an Alex Mowatt cross and poked the ball towards goal from point-blank range.
Graeme Shinnie tried to break the deadlock with just under an hour played. The Scotsman tested Brad Collins for the first time, driving his attempt low into the shot stoppers’ hands.
Matthew Clarke was next to head wide as he jumped highest for a Shinnie corner on the hour mark.
Kazim-Richards thought he had bagged an assist as he slipped in behind the Barnsley defence before squaring the ball across goal to Gregory, but Collins was able to save.
Rooney’s bench were off their seats as Shinnie set his sights at goal from the edge of the area. Bending his effort onto the post, the ball failed to cross the line with 10 minutes left on the clock at Oakwell.
