Cool Kasey saves day for Rams

DERBY substitute Kasey Palmer struck a late leveller to rescue a deserved point for the Rams and deny Paul Heckingbottom his first win as Leeds boss. Despite fighting a rearguard action for long periods Leeds had led twice and looked likely to steal the points after substitute Ezgjan Alioski struck in the 79th minute. However, the visitors were unable to clear the ball late on and allowed Palmer, on loan from Chelsea, to stab the ball home from close range. Heckingbottom said: ‘It does hurt and I’m feeling for the players. They are flat in there, they are down but they need to come out with their heads held high because I couldn’t see how Derby were going to score. It’s sickening, it’s sickening.’ Leeds opened the scoring against the run of play as PierreMichel Lasogga stole in unmarked to head a Stuart Dallas cross past Scott Carson. Derby responded well to the setback. Rams captain Richard Keogh headed wide from a corner and Tom Lawrence struck the bar. The equaliser came when Andreas Weimann pounced on a poor defensive header to fire through Felix Wiedwald’s legs. Leeds retook the lead after Samuel Saiz broke and fed Alioski, who scored at the second attempt. Derby boss Gary Rowett said: ‘Our first-half performance was as well as we have played for a long time and to come back twice shows great character.’