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Derby recorded their biggest win of the season as a 4-0 win at Birmingham that saw them break out of the bottom three for the first time since late October.
Three goals in 10 minutes of the first half did the damage for Wayne Rooney’s team as they responded strongly to their injury-time loss to Preston on Boxing Day, which had ended a previous six-game unbeaten streak. .
It also didn’t hurt Rooney’s chances of being named permanent successor to Phillip Cocu, who was fired as coach in early November as the club awaits a possible acquisition by a consortium.
However, Birmingham is now looking over their shoulder as Aitor Karanka’s men have not won any of their last five and their last home win was on October 28.
Derby got a 4-0 win at Birmingham
The Rams had started the night as the lowest scorers in the Sky Bet Championship with 10 in 20 games and had not scored more than two in any game, but they fixed it in 25 minutes.
They could have gone to the front after 10 minutes when Louie Sibley, instead of the suspended Martyn Waghorn, entered the goal, but Neil Etheridge reached out a strong hand to push the effort over the bar.
But the goalkeeper was the villain in the 15th minute, as he gave the visitors the advantage. Etheridge made two howls in her last game at St Andrew’s and here was another as she dropped Graeme Shinnie’s corner without pressure.
Krystian Bielik was the grateful receiver as he hooked the ball into the empty net for his first Derby goal.
And Etheridge was defeated again in the 17th minute. Blues captain Harlee Dean challenged Sibley and referee Tony Harrington signaled the point, with Shinnie emphatically converting the penalty.
Derby was rampant and Etheridge made a good save to prevent Sibley from making three.
But the clemency was temporary as Rooney’s team took advantage of a terrible corner defense resulting from Shinnie.
Matthew Clarke lit it up at the near post and everyone in blue watched as Colin Kazim-Richards slid it unopposed into the back post.
One-way traffic continued as Sibley had a deflected effort into the side net and Clarke received a header from Adam Clayton.
Karanka made four changes to his Birmingham team at halftime in search of an answer, sending in Lukas Jutkiewicz, Jonathan Leko, Jake Clarke-Salter and Mikel San Jose, but it didn’t make much of a difference.
And Jason Knight added to their woes in the 77th minute, converting a cross from Kamil Jozwiak as Derby scored four away from home for the first time since his famous play-off semi-final win at Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds in May 2019. .
What the managers said …
Birmingham Aitor karanka: “I’m not happy with the situation. It’s difficult to understand. It’s like going to the cinema and seeing the same movie. One mistake, one goal. Two mistakes, two goals. Three mistakes, three goals. It is difficult to accept” but it is something we are suffering from. And it’s hard to understand when in one game you are perfect and in the next you make the same mistakes as a couple of previous games. That is my frustration. “
“I apologize to the fans. But you must continue to believe in the team. Three days ago we did well, so why not the same? I was expecting ups and downs this season, but not these same individual mistakes in every game.”
Derby’s Wayne Rooney: “That performance has been coming in the last few weeks. I am delighted by the players and I am starting to see a team that believes in themselves. They have been doing good performances, the results have been improving and even though we lost to Preston, the acting was excellent.
“You can see the confidence in the team growing. They deserve it for the work they have done over the last month. With the energy that we have in the team, I felt it was the perfect game to bring it to Birmingham. I wanted to see if They could live with our energy and desire and I felt like we could invade Birmingham and that’s what we did. “
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