A STRANGE week for Derby County: relegated before the clocks have gone forward, their manager draped over the front pages of the tabloids getting publicity for non-footballing matters, but after this thrilling draw, they can take heart from a battling performance which suggests they may rebuild next season at a level more suited to their talents.

Fulham, who seized the moment several times, only to relinquish it, may well be joining them in the Championship. Should they do so, they will look back on this afternoon and feel this was where they might have secured salvation.

If Fulham were to glean their first away victory since September 2006, Pride Park seemed as likely a venue as any. Despite last week’s supine performance at Newcastle, there were promising portents. So doomed that desperation has long since given way to gallows humour, Derby had not managed a league victory since last September.

As if sensing this might finally be Fulham’s away day, manager Roy Hodgson was boldness personified, relegating his signing Eddie Johnson and his midfield fixture Danny Murphy to the bench.

Fulham, as is their way, began prettily with Jimmy Bullard, whose many gifts blossomed under Jewell at Wigan Athletic, the effervescent conduit through which all their better work passed.

Surprising even themselves, when Derby attacked, they scored, albeit with the aid of a mighty dollop of fortune. Robbie Savage’s hit-and-hope up-and-under found its way to Dean Leacock, who, 25 yards out, fired a centre-half’s shot towards goal that cannoned off Emanuel Villa, wrong-footed Kasey Keller and nestled in the corner of the goal.

Now, with the abyss of the Championship beckoning and the home support cheerily chanting “that’s why you’re going down”, it was time for Fulham to show their mettle. And, once Keller had acrobatically caught Dave Jones’s curler, they did. Paul Stalteri and Simon Davies linked neatly down the right for the Welshman to cross. Diomansy Kamara, whose £6m fee has weighed so heavily on his mercurial shoulders that Fulham were prepared to offload him last week, rose unchallenged to head past Roy Carroll.

Not for the first time this season, Derby’s admiring but far from admirable defence simply watched. Curiously but typically, their goal sapped fragile Fulham’s momentum. With Savage rolling back the years in the centre of midfield, Derby took control and only Keller, alert and brave in plunging at Kenny Miller’s feet, ensured parity would be maintained.

Bullard was felled by Hossam Ghaly in the 52nd minute. Bullard, who had sent a couple of first-half free kicks in to the stands, took this one himself, only to look back in anguish as the ball cannoned off Carroll’s crossbar.

Just when they seemed set to flower, Fulham withered and Derby crafted a slew of chances. Keller charged out of his penalty area like a man about to miss the last bus and miskicked. Robbie Earnshaw screwed wide from the corner of the area. Then Keller acquitted himself more adeptly, touching Mile Sterjovski’s pilediver on to the roof of the net and finally Eddie Lewis’s cross-shot bounced off the bar.

Shaken, Fulham finally stirred themselves and flung men forwards. Kamara was most unfortunate to see his 65th-minute header from Bullard’s cross drift wide. Still, though, they would yield. A referee other than Mike Dean might have given a 70th-minute penalty for a Stalteri handball, but, in Derby’s next attack, when the best chance of a chance-strewn match fell to the unmarked Savage, 15 yards out, the tiger shot tamely into Keller’s midriff.

Then pandemonium. First Kamara sprinted through what passed for Derby’s offside trap. His shot was saved by Carroll but fell for Hameur Bouazza. If Leacock had been fortunate in the first half, he was just as unlucky in the second when Bouazza’s shot deflected off him over Carroll and into goal.

Surely even Fulham could hold on. They could not, not even for two minutes. Derby ambled upfield, Sterjovski crossed from the right and Villa headed home. In the grand scheme of things, such shenanigans matter little to a gleeful Derby. For Fulham they matter very much indeed.

Match stats

Star man: Jimmy Bullard (Fulham)

Player ratings: Derby: Carroll 6, Todd 5 (Mears 89min), Moore 6, Leacock 6, Lewis 5, Sterjovski 6, Savage 7, Ghaly 4, Jones 6, Miller 6 (Earnshaw 36min, 6), Villa 7 Fulham: Keller 6, Stalteri 6, Hughes 6, Hangeland 5, Konchesky 6, Andreasen 5, Bullard 7 (Murphy 81min), Bouazza 5 (Johnson 81min), Davies 5, McBride 5, Kamara 7

Scorers: Derby: Villa 10, 80 Fulham: Kamara 24, Leacock og 78

Yellow cards: Derby: Todd Fulham: Konchesky, Andreasen, Bouazza

Referee: M Dean

Attendance: 33,034