Neil Warnock admitted Cardiff missed the chance to put the pressure on Derby after being held to a goalless draw at Sheffield Wednesday.
The Bluebirds would have drawn level on points with the second-placed Rams with a victory over Wednesday.
But despite dominating for much of the game, Warnock admitted City lacked a cutting edge up front.
Warnock said: “Any draw away from home is a good point, but I’m a bit disappointed because I thought it was a great opportunity to get three points.
“I thought we were ready to kick on. Okay, we had one or two new legs who have not played since December, so I’m not surprised they run out of steam.
“But I thought it was there for us. But there was a little bit of quality lacking in the final third. Nothing dropped for us but we lacked a bit of quality.
“It will be like this until the end of the season. We don’t look at whether we can catch this side or that, we just look at getting our own points on board.
“We’ve had 12 clean sheets so far this year which is brilliant; we set our stall out to get 15. To have 12 I’m really pleased with that.
“We didn’t have enough in the last third, I thought it was there for us, I’m probably more disappointed than anybody.
“Last year we would have taken anything here because we were all over the show, but this year we really were the better side.
“If we’d been a bit more positive, but we took too many touches around the box. Instead of being too nice with it we needed to get it in the box.
“But we have got to be satisfied with a point if you can’t win the game.
“We’ve got to get a bit better at finishing, but that will come with Yanic (Wildschut) and Marko (Grujic) coming on and probably another striker coming in, it augurs well for the second half.
“We’ve spoken about three or four strikers, but I’m hoping to get one of them before the next league match.
On loan Norwich flier Wildschut looked a threat on his first start while Warnock was also impressed with Grujic.
The Serbian midfielder was given an immediate debut following his loan signing from Liverpool but was hampered by an eighth minute booking for tugging back Adam Reach.
“They’ve given us a bit more depth,” added Warnock. “Yanic showed in the first-half what he’s good at but run out of steam.
“Marko had a decent hour and did the same. But when you’ve not played in the championship, it’s so difficult, but it’ll come, they’re good lads and they’ll learn from it.
“Wednesday had good chances, but you would have thought we were the home side the way they looked to get us on the counter attack.”
Owls strikers Jordan Rhodes and Lucas Joao both had a couple of good chances to give new boss Jos Luhukay his first league win.
Warnock is now switching his thoughts to Sunday’s FA Cup fourth round tie with Manchester City and has vowed not to try and stifle the Premier League leaders.
“At least we can have a rest next week with a nice easy game against Man City,” he quipped. “I might go scouting instead!
“We’ll have to find whoever’s fit to run around for an hour and a half and try and keep the score down.
“But we’ll have a go and enjoy it. It’ll be a full-house.
“I had a chat with some fans in the queue on Friday and I asked them why they hadn’t been there all season but they told me they were season ticket holders.
“It’s good to see the excitement and that’s why we can’t go and stifle, we have to go and think to hell with it – as long as we don’t get battered.”