Bournemouth 1-1 Derby County: Riquelme maintains Cherries' unbeaten start on Rooney's return
- Published
Graeme Shinnie's opener was the Scot's first goal of the season
Rodrigo Riquelme's first Bournemouth goal kept the Football League's last unbeaten record alive as the Cherries rescued a late point on Wayne Rooney's return from self-isolation for Derby.
The 20-year-old Spaniard, making a third substitute appearance on loan from Atletico Madrid, guided home Diego Rico's cross on the volley to reward second-half pressure from the hosts.
Rams keeper David Marshall had earlier pushed an Arnaut Danjuma shot on to the post to preserve Derby's lead, given to them by Graeme Shinnie's prodded finish after a Rooney free-kick.
Derby could have snatched all three points even after Riquelme's late leveller but Lee Buchanan's effort was cleared off the line by Bournemouth defender Steve Cook.
It was a third successive 1-1 draw for the Rams, who have surrendered leads in each of those games and remain just inside the Championship relegation zone in 22nd position.
Derby's solitary win came at Norwich and they looked set to inflict another defeat on a team relegated from the Premier League last season until Riquelme's classy first-time finish from compatriot Rico's deep centre.
The Rams were the better team in the first half, benefiting from the return of Rooney, who had missed their three previous games after a friend who visited him tested positive for coronavirus.
The ex-England captain's early free-kick was headed narrowly over by Matt Clarke before Bournemouth, who slip a place to third despite the point, made a mess of dealing with a tame Rooney set-piece strike to allow Shinnie to put the visitors ahead.
But Derby, the subject of Middle East takeover talks, failed to build on it and Marshall made a fine save from Dominic Solanke before denying Danjuma twice in the space of two second-half minutes.
Rooney had been taken off by that point but Derby had chances either side of Riquelme's equaliser as Asmir Begovic foiled Jason Knight and Cook's goal-line clearance thwarted Buchanan.
Bournemouth manager Jason Tindall told BBC Radio Solent:
"I'm disappointed that we haven't won the game. I felt we were nowhere near our capabilities in the first half and we thoroughly deserved to be 1-0 down at the time.
"We made some bad decisions on the ball and we didn't attack anywhere near enough. Second half, it was like chalk and cheese and there was more purpose.
"For the second 45 minutes, I think Derby were camped back in their final third and we really pinned them back, but I felt our second-half performance deserved more than the one goal.
"We've certainly got to get used to teams coming here, defending and looking not to get beat. That was how Derby set themselves up and tried to look to beat us on the counter-attack."
Derby boss Phillip Cocu:
"(Wayne) Rooney looked quite fit. He gives us a little bit extra. He felt good but more games will come.
"We all know that we are in a difficult situation at this time. In the end, I think this is a fair result.
"We had an excellent start. They really struggled to find the solution against us. It's just a pity that we couldn't score the second goal."
On talk of potential takeover: "I'm totally not focused on that side of the club. I'm focused on football. There is always pressure. Pressure in the media, from fans, but also from ourselves."