Derby County 1-3 Bristol City: City eased past already-relegated Rams
- Published
- comments
Andreas Weimann scored nine goals in 81 league games across three seasons at Derby
Andreas Weimann scored his 20th goal of the season as Bristol City beat relegated Derby 2-1 at Pride Park.
The Austrian found the net against his old club after only 10 minutes, coolly striking the ball past Ryan Allsopp in the Rams' goal in a one-on-one .
Antoine Semenyo doubled the Robins' advantage before half-time, but Craig Forsyth headed a goal back for Derby on the hour mark.
Defender Timm Klose then wrapped up the win for Bristol City with a header from a set piece, to confine Derby to only a fourth home defeat this season.
Derby's fate was finally sealed on Easter Monday after they were beaten by Queens Park Rangers and relegated to League One next season.
Wayne Rooney made six changes to his side for the visit of City - a team also confined to the bottom half of the table and similarly looking ahead to the summer and a restart.
Weimann has been a significant bright spot, however, for the Robins and has been enjoying his most prolific campaign to date.
He didn't take long to move his tally of goals for the season to 20, after being set up by Chris Martin, beating the offside trap before slotting past the on-rushing Allsopp.
Semenyo then made it 2-0, after stealing the ball from Richard Stearman and running into the box to slot into the far corner.
Bartosz Cybulski was among the changes Rooney made but the teenager missed a sitter for Derby on his debut right before time, heading the ball over the bar from close range.
Forsyth pulled one back for the hosts with a unmarked header from a Malcolm Ebiowei cross. But it was Derby's only real chance in front of goal and they recorded only two shots on target all match.
Klose eased Bristol City's nerves for the final 10 minutes with his first goal for the club as they go unbeaten in four games and moved up a place to 17th.
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.
"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 manager Nigel Pearson told BBC Radio Bristol:
"I'm pleased with the result, We made hard work of it in the second half because we created so many chances but couldn't put them away.
"We just wanted to come away with a positive result today and the players in the first half were excellent. We should've made the game easier for ourselves but it was still a really good team performance.
"For somebody [Weimann] who's at the more senior end of his career to get a career-best return is testament to his professionalism and his desire and attitude - he's a top-class pro."