Last night's fine 1-1 draw against Sheffield United at Bramall Lane was City's second away point against highly-rated opposition and manager Nigel Pearson believes it proves his side are coping well with the step up to the Championship.

A point apiece from trips to Ipswich and the Blades were not to be sniffed at especially as City could claim to be the better side on both occasions and Pearson said: "Right from the word go I thought we could be competitive. For the players themselves, coming to Sheffield in particular who are billed as major sides with a lot of expectation, it showed there is no reason why we can't compete.

"There will be times in this league, because it is so tough, when things might not go your way, but for the players here and at Ipswich on Saturday they can see they can compete so if there was any doubt in their minds, those last two tough away games should show them they can be competitive."

City so nearly gained all three points, having taken the lead through Matty Fryatt's first League goal of the season to follow up his Carling Cup strike of last midweek and it took a spectacular long-range effort for the equaliser to deny them.

Pearson said: "It was a fair result. I thought we were the better side in the first half then they put a lot of pressure on us on the second in a good, even game.

"I thought our movement was good, we played some great football in the first half and we knew they were going to put us under pressure in a direct style but I thought there was some good football from both sides.

"We didn't make our superiority tell in the first half and I suppose at times in the second half we were hanging on but it was a good performance and unfortunately we got a couple of injuries to Steve Howard and Martyn Waghorn.

"Both came off with hamstring injuries. We had only one last season and now we had two in one game."

The injured duo will be under treatment leading up to Saturday's visit of Barnsley to the Walkers Stadium.