Derby County vs Bristol City. Sky Bet Championship.
Pride Park StadiumAttendance22,753.
Report and highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between Derby County and Bristol City at Pride Park as Andreas Weimann scored against his old side in a comfortable victory over the relegated Rams.
Saturday 23 April 2022 18:53, UK
Andreas Weimann returned to pile more misery on his former club as Bristol City won 3-1 at relegated Derby in the Sky Bet Championship.
Weimann combined with another ex-Derby player, Chris Martin, to score his 20th goal of the campaign with Antoine Semenyo adding a second before the interval.
Derby, who were relegated on Easter Monday, responded in the second half with Craig Forsyth giving them hope but City wrapped up the points when Timm Klose scored from a free-kick.
Derby had lost only one of their previous 11 home games but they were behind after 10 minutes when City hit them on the break.
Semenyo's quick ball out found Martin, who sent Weimann clear of a static defence to fire low past Ryan Allsop.
Derby looked in vain for an offside flag but they had a chance to draw level in the 22nd minute.
Malcolm Ebiowei displayed good footwork on the right before setting up Ravel Morrison whose shot was turned over by Bartosz Cybulski on his full league debut.
The hosts were fortunate not to fall further behind in the 29th minute when Curtis Davies' backpass was cleared off the line by Allsop.
It would have been an embarrassing moment for the Derby skipper, who saw his backline opened up again when Sam Bell got away on the right but his pullback was turned behind by Richard Stearman.
It was a vital clearance with Martin waiting to pounce but Stearman was at fault in the 38th minute when he was caught on the ball out on the right by Semenyo, who ran through to slide a shot into the bottom left corner.
Derby should have pulled one back two minutes later but Cybulksi headed over an open goal from four yards before Morrison forced a diving save from Daniel Bentley in the 45th minute.
Derby needed to strike early in the second half and they cut the deficit in the 61st minute when Forsyth got in at the back post to head in Ebiowei's cross from the right.
City would have questioned their defending but they almost restored their two-goal cushion immediately with Allsop saving well from Semenyo, before Bell drove the rebound just wide.
But Derby were causing City problems and Ebiowei jinked past three red shirts before curling a shot from the edge of the area narrowly wide.
City responded by taking the steam out of the home side with a third goal, headed in by Klose at the back post from a free-kick.
The Rams kept going and came close to pulling another goal back but were beaten at Pride Park for the first time since late February.
Derby first team development coach Justin Walker: "It was a good exercise for us in terms of providing players with the opportunity today. Disappointing first half, I thought the goals we gave away were cheap, we were disappointed as a group and at half-time had a bit of a chat about the rhythm and intensity and self belief really.
"I thought second half we started to push a little bit and got ourselves back in the game. That's what we were looking at today, the character and temperament of some of the players to handle the environment. There's an objective to what we want out of these last three games and we've got a tough job to do over the coming weeks to prepare ourselves properly for next season."
Bristol City's Nigel Pearson: "I think it's a career-best for him [Weimann]. It's a testament to his professionalism. His desire and his work ethic is just incredible. I'm really pleased for him especially off the back of last season where he
spent a long time out injured - so to have a season like this on his return from injury is particularly impressive.
"It's been a difficult season for us at times. We've not always got the results or performances warranted or we've been a bit inconsistent as a team so for us to have one player on 20 goals, another on 10 and Antoine (Semenyo) is on seven, so we've made progress. It feels like a long season for us but we're thankful we've beaten last season's points total and we've got two games left to try and build on some good performances of late."
