Eddie Lewis felt the Rams' performance in their 1-0 defeat at Middlesbrough was "a tale of two halves".

Derby started slowly on Teesside and trailed to a fine Tuncay strike on 32 minutes.

But it was a different story after the break as they came out strongly and could easily have nicked a draw at the death.

"I think in the last 20 minutes we were the only team threatening to score and they were trying to hold on," the USA international told www.dcfc.co.uk.

"The second half was very encouraging but it was a bit of a tale of two halves for us, which is becoming a recurring theme.

"We didn't really show up in the first half in a lot of departments but we were better after the break, though it was a bit too little to late."

Derby had hoped to pick up a result from the Riverside Stadium on the back of the progress they made last week in their 1-0 defeat at home to Manchester United.

"It has been a great week following a very good performance and we wanted to start brightly because we knew they would be a bit edgy as they're not quite safe yet," said Lewis.

"But it was disappointing to come out a little slowly and we didn't get out of second gear for a while.

"We got better after half-time but we had given ourselves a goal to make up and that's difficult."

It was a wild afternoon in the north-east as the promised Easter storms threatened to take over at one point.

The temperature was already low and a strong wind was swirling around but when the snow poured down, conditions became even more difficult.

Lewis added: "The wind was one thing, but the snow was probably the worst I've ever played in.

"It was a bit of a white-out with the snow coming down in front of your face, tracking the ball was difficult, and the pitch was getting very slippy.

"Both teams had to deal with it and sometimes you can take advantage of that unpredictability but unfortunately we didn't do that."

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