DISGRUNTLED Newcastle United manager Sam Allardyce could not hide his disappointment after seeing his side fail to overcome the Premier League's basement side in a match that looked, on paper, a home banker.

Derby arrived at St James' Park with only one league win to their name this season, ironically over Newcastle, and on a run of seven consecutive defeats. But they were only three minutes away from recording their second top flight victory this term, only for Magpies striker Mark Viduka to grab a share of the spoils.

The 2-2 draw may have extended United's unbeaten run to four games but it was definitely a case of two points dropped against the league's worst side.

And at the end of the season Newcastle may regret their inability to go for the jugular when the UEFA Cup places are up for grabs.

"It's disappointing we've had to come back from a goal down and then 2-1 down," lamented Allardyce. "We've clearly had enough opportunities to win any game.

"We gave the opposition something to hang on to right until the very end - even though we nearly won it 3-2 at the death."

Newcastle finally laid to rest the problem of keeping clean sheets when they recorded a 1-0 victory away at Fulham last weekend. It was the club's first shut out in 13 games and a first away from home in 12 months.

Allardyce finally thought he had resolved his defensive ills after a solid performance at Craven Cottage - only to see his back four punished for two moments of slackness. But that wasn't the only problem which annoyed the Magpies manager who regretted the inability to kill teams off.

"We still have one of two problems to resolve - our basic defending allowed the opposition to have two shots on target and score two," said Allardyce. "We have had numerous chances to convert, more than the two we have.

"Mark Viduka showed us the way forward with his finishing. He had three opportunities and converted two. And the first one he converted was our most difficult chance. But the others went begging.

"(Giles) Barnes gave them the lead when he put the ball in the bottom corner and then in the second half it was a long ball, where we just have to get the basic defending right, and Miller scored.

"We got a bit frantic after that, that's understandable, because we know we shouldn't have been in that position but ultimately we got something out of the game.

"We're disappointed in the result. The performance and creativity was very good. Their keeper and made numerous saves, we've missed numerous chances and we've not converted and won a game we should have.

"I think there are times on occasions when we look more resilient and then all of a sudden that problem pops up again.

We just have to continue to work on it. We now have more options to work on in defence, which we haven't had for a number of weeks. We have to now make sure we don't gift the opposition things that will make life difficult for us.

"I've very pleased with the attacking play, apart from the conversion of chances. We have to take that on the chin.

We've kept the undefeated record going which is important.

"Sometimes you don't get what you deserve but we got a point and move on."