Stoke City's impressive start to the season narrowly survived against a hurting Derby County who were still feeling their 4-2 home defeat against Crewe.
A slow start saw City struggle to find any room on the pitch as the Rams chased down any loose balls.
Ade Akinbiyi did find space however to thread Darel Russell through, but his 18-yard low drive was comfortably collected by Rams keeper Lee Camp early on.
Derby's work rate could not be faulted but they struggled for chances, the best coming in the 40th minute when Morten Bisgaard's right-sided cross was half-volleyed over by Adam Bolder in a situation where he should have done much better.
Half-time saw Potters boss Tony Pulis rearranging his team, making the addition of Carl Asaba to try and give his side a cutting edge, but the visitors remained unchanged.
Confusion hit the Britannia Stadium on 66 minutes when the Potters looked to have taken the lead. A Dave Brammer corner was headed towards goal by Gerry Taggart and Akinbiyi looked to have scrambled the ball over the line, but referee Neale Barry saw it differently.
Derby continued to play and while a large amount of the Stoke side was still celebrating unaware, Bolder nearly scored at the other end.
Stoke finally made the breakthrough in the dying seconds of the game when a Russell cross was hammered home from the left of the box from ten yards by Marcus Hall to send the visiting fans home disappointed.