Keane's 'killer' look over Miller but the Sunderland boss keeps his cool

Fixing his inquisitor with an almost homicidal stare, Roy Keane provided more drama in the space of a few seconds than these teams managed in 90 minutes of mind-numbing stalemate.

Yes, Keane told the man who dared to ask, he was quite happy with his decision to put Liam Miller on the transfer list and, no, he did not think it was all right to be late for work.

It was the nearest the Sunderland manager came to losing his cool on a day when he could have been forgiven for berating referee Mike Riley and his assistants after a legitimate goal by Michael Chopra was ruled out for offside.

Instead Keane chose to analyse his own team's failure to find a way past Derby and pick up three points in the battle to avoid joining Paul Jewell's side in the Championship next season.

The notoriously explosive Irishman knows that if his players are going to keep their composure in the tense weeks ahead, he must keep his.

"How I act rubs off on the players," said Keane.

"I have to deal with disappointment and whatever comes my way because the players are looking for the manager to guide them.

"That's where I will be judged over the next couple of months. How I react, how I sort things out."

Jewell just wishes he was still scrapping instead of planning for next season and trying to avoid being the Premier League's worst team by beating the 15-point low set by Sunderland in 2006.

On Saturday Sunderland avoided setting a club record of 11 straight away defeats.

Derby reached double figures but their worst League run, 22 games without a victory, continues.

"I'll take all the pain now to be stronger next year," said Jewell.

"If you said to me you're going to get 14 points this season and get promoted next year, I would take it."

Robbie Savage didn't even make the Derby bench and Jewell explained: "He hasn't played well but we're expecting to build a team to get out of the Championship and I want people with the mentality of Robbie, Roy Carroll and Alan Stubbs who expect to win matches next season."