Derby County 2-2 Cardiff City: Bobby Clark earns point for Rams
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Derby County and Cardiff City at Pride Park on Saturday; Bobby Clark earns a point for John Eustace's Rams in an entertaining draw.
Saturday 22 August 2026 17:18, UK
Cardiff remain unbeaten two games into their return to Championship football after Cian Ashford and Yousef Salech's goals earned a 2-2 draw at Derby.
The Welsh outfit were good value for their point, having twice taken the lead in front of a raucous Pride Park crowd of 28,926.
But the Rams, unconvincing for large periods, capitalised on defensive mishaps to earn their first point of the new campaign through Carlton Morris and Bobby Clark.
Due to a crippling injury list, Brian Barry-Murphy's side kicked off the game with a makeshift central-defensive partnership of Perry Ng and Joel Bagan and had to survive strong early pressure from the hosts.
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Within the first three minutes, Ng executed a perfectly-timed goal-saving challenge on Clark and keeper Nathan Trott was also called into action twice.
First, the ex-West Ham reserve pushed away a curling Corey Blackett-Taylor attempt and then he smothered an Oscar Fraulo shot following Ronan Kpakio's under-hit back-pass, with Bagan kicking Clark's follow-up effort off the line.
But the Bluebirds eventually found their feet with Jacob Widdell Zetterstrom's first save of the contest seeing him tip a thumping 15-yard drive by Rubin Colwill onto the crossbar.
And, after Trott had kept out a Blackett-Taylor drive with his right leg at the near post and Lewis Travis had curled wide, the visitors forged in front in the 19th minute.
Kpakio directed Alex Robertson's left-wing corner back towards goal and Ashford guided the ball into Zetterstrom's bottom-right corner from eight yards for only his second goal since December.
The Rams went on to level in the 26th minute when Max Johnston's long diagonal ball from the right saw Morris shrug off the attentions of Ng before bundling into an exposed Trott's bottom-right corner.
But Cardiff were ahead again by the interval with Ollie Tanner and Colwill combining brilliantly through the right channel before the latter squared for Salech to sweep past Zetterstrom. It was the Danish striker's third goal of the season in all competitions.
John Eustace's men restored parity just four minutes after the interval when, not for the first time, Blackett-Taylor tormented away right-back Kpakio before pulling the ball back from the byline and finding Clark, who slammed a firm 12-yard strike past Trott.
Just past the hour, Morris headed wide from Alex Mowatt's corner whilst at the other end, hopeful long-range attempts from David Turnbull and Jack Moylan failed to find the target.
Home sub Lars-Jorgen Salvesen also fired straight at Trott after being gifted possession by a sloppy Kpakio pass in stoppage time to ensure honours ended even.
