Chris Hughton: “If you look back would we have been happy to be in this position at this stage of the season and the answer is yes.
"We know we have got some tough times ahead, there are a lot of teams behind us pushing very hard to catch us, but we just have to maintain what we have had in the first half of the season in the second half.
“We have a disappointed and frustrated dressing room, but the reality is we have gone 11 games unbeaten, it was a pretty good performance, we have kept another clean sheet and we have not lost another game at St James’ Park.
"We have played a lot worse than that at St James’ Park this season and still won. We had a number of good chances in the game but we have failed to put those chances away.
“If we had put one of them away I believe we would have gone on to get a second one.
“We are a little disappointed with the last two games. Because of the standards we have set ourselves we expected to take more from these two games, particularly after coming off the 2-2 draw at Sheffield Wednesday.
“But that is what the Championship is all about. We have come up against a very spirited Derby side but on the balance of play, considering the chances we had and the amount of possession we had, we should have won the game.”