John Eustace was proud of 10-man Derby County's fighting spirit as they fought to clinch a point at Birmingham City and was disappointed it wasn't three.
The two sides fought out a 1-1 draw at St Andrew's in a feisty Championship encounter which saw Patrick Agyemang give the Rams the lead in the first half.
Joe Ward was then sent off before half-time for a second bookable offence leaving Derby to face 45 minutes with 10 men.
Jack Robinson eventually equalised with a header from a free-kick before Christoph Klarer was shown an instant red card for a high foot on Ebou Adams in stoppage time.
Reflecting on the game, Derby head coach Eustace said: "Obviously, I am very proud of the effort of the group, and I was disappointed that we didn't win the game, I'm not going to lie.
"I thought after the start, obviously, they've hit the post and looked dangerous. We just adjusted a couple of things during that first half, and then I felt very comfortable.
"We scored a fantastic goal and knew the areas that we felt we could hurt Birmingham.
"The connection of the front three at the moment is really good with Patrick, Rhian and Ben, and it has taken a bit of time to adjust after obviously losing arguably the best striker in the league in Carlton.
"We've had to find a different way to kind of play, and for the front three, they're getting that connection. They're playing well at the moment. We always looked like a threat, especially on the transitions.
"If you look at the changes we made at half-time, with Ebou and Curtis coming on, they enjoy defending those kinds of balls.
"They had a lot of possession, but the way we defended was really pleasing."
Ward will now miss Monday night's game at Leicester City which is a cruel blow for the former Peterborough man who has been in superb form over the last two months.
But Eustace said he had no complaints with the second yellow card when he chopped down Patrick Roberts who was bearing down on goal despite there being adequate cover.
"I thought the first yellow card was really poor," added Eustace. "In the first half, a player kind of taking the ball away.
"I think the big centre-back did it in the second half and actually run halfway up the pitch and put the ball down if we're going to look at things like that.
"It's a really poor first yellow card, but the second yellow card is a really poor decision from Joe which we're all very disappointed about.