Andi Weimann hit his 20th goal in what has been a brilliant season for the Austrian.
Having been on 19 goals for the last three games, the popular forward may have been wondering if the 20th would come with games running out.
He needn’t have worried, in the 10th minute a swift counter-attacking move saw Weimann beat the offside and race through on goal from the halfway line after great work from Antoine Semenyo and Chris Martin.
Andi had a lot of time to think about his finish but cooley found the corner of the net. Obviously delighted with the landmark goal but still respectful to his former fans Weimann apologetically raised one hand to the Derby fans and then pumped both fists in celebration to the travelling City fans.
City were looking sharp but in fairness relegated Derby had made a number of changes and didn’t pose too much of a threat. Weimann, Martin, and Semenyo were causing all sorts of problems for the ageing Rams backline, and you felt it was only a matter of time before we scored again.
I’ll admit to giving it both barrels to the Derby fans nearest to me when Semenyo did make it two on 38 minutes. The Rams fans had been singing to Antoine moments before that he was a “s**t Kazim-Richards, you’re just a s**t Kazim-Richards” and City’s #18 rammed the chant down their throat stealing the ball off defender Stearman before rifling a left-footed shot into the far corner.
Semenyo is playing near the top of his game and is almost unplayable at the moment. With more composure, he could have and should have walked away with the match ball.
I will be very surprised if some Premier League clubs, the likes of Brentford or Fulham don’t come in for him during the summer.
Semenyo is under contract and so City can make sure that any deal is right for the club. I’m not touting the striker and would absolutely love to keep him, but clubs must surely be looking at him with the form that he is in.
Derby were much better in the second half and pulled one back through left-back Craig Forsyth, but it was really down to poor defending by City. Ayman Benarous failed to get close enough to stop the cross coming in from the impressive Malcolm Ebiowei and seemed to go with his wrong leg and from the resulting deep cross, Sam Bell had switched off, unaware that Forsyth had got in behind him.
That goal is part of the reason why unbelievably I left Pride Park after a 1-3 victory feeling ever so slightly deflated. It had me questioning Nigel Pearson’s thinking.
When I saw the line-up, I couldn’t understand the selection of Benarous in that left wingback role, coming in for the injured Jay Dasilva. What has happened to Cameron Pring? Has he lost his bus pass?
To my knowledge, Pring isn’t injured and so surely would have been the obvious selection for that position with Dasilva unavailable. We had two natural creative #10 type players in Benarous and Alex Scott playing wingbacks when surely, we had other better suited defensive players who could have come in.
It’s the old square pegs in round holes scenario that we have been so accustomed to with recent managers. No one can question the effort and endeavour that Scott or Benarous give playing there but we just don’t see the best of them in that wing-back role.
Pearson further confused, frustrated, and disappointed me when replacing the injured Scott on 23 minutes for forward Bell.
Bell’s last performance at home to Coventry City in that right wingback role, saw him subbed at half time and the youngster was once again all at sea in that position on Saturday and was again subbed, this time on 77 minutes.
I’m not going to castigate Bell as he should never have been put in that position. There were other options, we could have moved to a back four, bringing on Duncan Idehen earlier for Scott and moving Robbie Cundy to that wingback role or we could have brought Han-Noah Massengo on and played him there, a role that he has played previously.
Bell did show one or two glimpses in the attacking position but gave the ball away and for me, Pearson got it wrong.
I will admit that the Bell for Scott substitution and subsequent substitutions of Massengo for Bell, Idehen for Benarous and Andy King for Joe Williams had me confused, as did the four substitutions that Wayne Rooney made to his Derby side.
I know that you are allowed a concussion sub but Scott appeared to have a bloodied nose and I didn’t spot any head injury to a Rams player.
Confused so I asked Mr Google as Ref Lee Poole wasn’t around and it turns out that each team is permitted to use a maximum of two concussion substitutes during a match and when a concussion substitute is used, the opposing team has the option of using an additional substitute for any reason. Every day is a school day.
There were impressive performances from Rob Atkinson and Timm Klose in particular and I thought Matty James had a decent game. Klose got his first goal for the club after a fine free-kick delivery from James.
The Swiss centre-back is a popular player with his teammates and the fans and must have done enough to warrant a contract for next season.
The victory was the first time this season that we have won a game by two goals and hopefully we can put another season stat to bed next week against Hull City and win two back-to-back games for the first time.
Our 3 Peaps In A Podcast ratings were: Daniel Bentley 6, Robbie Cundy 7, Timm Klose 8, Rob Atkinson 8, Sam Bell 5, Ayman Benarous 6, Matty James 7, Joe Williams 7, Andi Weimann 8, Chris Martin 8, Antoine Semenyo 8. A Team Average of 7.09 for the game.
For Nige it was a 7 which might seem harsh after a 1-3 away victory, but I still think that some of the selections were questionable, hence the 7. The current Team average for the season is 5.88 with an expected performance rating of 6.
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