Derby County held Aston Villa to a goalless draw at the iPro Stadium in the Sky Bet Championship on Saturday.

Aston Villa hit the woodwork twice as the visitors looked to bag their second league win of the season, but it was not to be for Roberto Di Matteo’s men as they fought off a strong second-half performance from the hosts.

It was a cagey opener from both sides, with Villa the brighter of the two as Ross McCormack and Jack Grealish looked to cause some early problems for Derby.

Villa’s latest signing Mile Jedinak was waiting for clearance following his move from Crystal Palace so they made only one change as Gary Gardner started in place of the injured Aaron Tshibola, with Derby naming an unchanged side.

Nigel Pearson’s side created limited chances during the first half, with the best of the opportunities falling to the Villans when McCormack rattled the crossbar from 30 yards out, as his powerful strike produced an excellent finger-tip save from former Villa goalkeeper Scott Carson to tip the effort onto the bar in the 17th minute.

Villa, who continued to enjoy the lion’s share of possession, came agonisingly close once more when 20 minutes later Gardner released a thunderous strike from 20 yards out which looked to be heading into the back of the net, but his effort hit the post to keep the sides level heading into the interval.

The Rams started the second half the livelier of the sides, creating chances and causing problems for Villa’s defence as they attempted to drive forward and break the deadlock.

Just moments after the break Derby created their first chance - and the first real save from Pierluigi Gollini - as Tom Ince ran onto a Chris Martin through-ball, shooting low as Gollini stood strong to make the save.

At the other end, Tommy Elphick saw his 70th-minute effort from close-range cleared off the line by Will Hughes in what was a lucky escape for the Rams.

And it was Villa’s turn to breathe a sigh of relief soon after asInce’s free-kick from 20 yards out just skimmed the right post, with Gollini glued to the spot as he watched the effort drift narrowly wide.

A minute later Libor Kozak had a brilliant chance to open the scoring and grab the lead for his side from a free header, but he missed the target to send the ball wide.

Derby substitute Darren Bent came close to putting his team ahead when CyrusChristie crossed the ball into his path, but Bent was not able to direct his header on target from an awkward angle.

Villa were lucky not to have conceded a penalty in the 85th minute when Aly Cissokho looked to have hold of Richard Keogh in the penalty area, but the referee appeared not to have seen the contact.

Derby looked to press for a winner in a last-gasp effort to grab all three points, but ChrisMartin sent his late free-kick from 25 yards over the crossbar.