Brighton & Hove Albion have extended their unbeaten record in the Championship to 20 matches, but only after they were twice pegged back by Derby County in a 2-2 draw.

An end-to-end opening saw Solomon March miss the target from the edge of the area for Brighton, before Derby defender Jason Shackell had a header cleared off the line by Tomer Hemed.

Midway through the first half, Brighton edged ahead when Jamie Murphy provided the assist for James Wilson to poke home on the volley, and it could have been two as Murphy struck a shot straight at Lee Grant.

However, four minutes before the break, Derby got back on level terms through Bradley Johnson, who reacted fastest to send a header into the net from Jacob Butterfield's corner.

The start of the second half was lacking in action, but Derby winger Tom Ince and Brighton substitute Rajiv van La Parra both attempted to influence the match with speculative efforts.

It took until the final 20 minutes for either side to make their mark on the half, but Brighton finally did, and soon after Shackell had got in the way of a fierce Hemed strike, the visitors regained the lead through on-loan winger Van La Parra, who curled the ball into the bottom corner from 20 yards after being set up by Dale Stephens.

Brighton looked on course to extend their advantage at the top of the standings, but two minutes from time, Gordon Greer was adjudged to have brought down Johnny Russell in the box, giving Chris Martin the chance to convert from the penalty spot to earn the East Midlands outfit a share of the spoils.