Derby County recorded their fifth straight home victory by inflicting a 2-0 win over Cardiff City.

Derby County recorded their fifth straight home victory by inflicting a 2-0 win over Cardiff City.

Second half strikes from George Thorne and Andreas Weimann secured all three points in a dominant performance from Paul Clement’s side as they recorded their ninth win in 12 outings.

In a fast paced start to the contest at the iPro Stadium, Derby were immediately on the front foot, pressing the Cardiff backline deep inside their half as they created a couple of early openings.

First from the left, Tom Ince saw a teasing ball across goal, destined for the far corner of the goal, is pushed away by David Marshall, before Jacob Butterfield tried his luck after creating space just left of centre and his fierce left footed effort was blocked by the legs of the goalkeeper.

Bradley Johnson volleyed Ince’s deep cross from the right well over the crossbar as the hosts continued to get dictate the game, before Marshall again came to Cardiff’s rescue.

The brilliant work by Cyrus Christie on the right was just as good as the save as he collected a hopeful punt down the line, before weaving inside Scott Malone and delivering a ball into the box.

Andreas Weimann collected possession, evaded a challenge, but saw his rasping shot saved well by the Scotland international in between the Bluebirds’ goal.

Later, Ince fired well over in a dominant showing – Cardiff’s sole shot of any note during this 20 minute spell came through Kenwyne Jones, who shanked a shot from range well wide of Scott Carson’s goal.

After weathering the storm Cardiff grew into the game and arguably had the best chances of the half.

After good work by Jones, the forward slipped a ball into the path of Kagisho Dikgacoi, but the midfielder could only divert wide, before Jason Shackell, crucially, got his head on a goal bound effort to prevent the visitors from taking the lead.

From there, Thorne saw two opportunities easily gathered in the dying stages of a half which represented, arguably, Derby’s most dominant display of the campaign.

Clement’s men went close to breaking the deadlock within two minutes of the restart as Johnson’s glancing header from a corner was cleared off the line by Lee Peltier, who was commanding the far post.

The one blemish on the whole afternoon came five minutes later as Johnson, the midfielder, clipped the heels of a defender, earning him his fifth yellow card and, consequently, a one-match suspension, ruling him out of Friday’s meeting with Hull City.

The Rams, however, maintained their dominance and opened the scoring on 55 minutes through Thorne.

Patient build up play saw the ball played into the feet of Chris Martin in the area, who held the ball up before playing into the path of the midfielder to sweep beyond Marshall and into the far corner.

Almost immediately from the kick-off, Butterfield broke through the middle of the Cardiff midfielder and played the ball into Martin, but the forward, after a heavy touch, was denied by the onrushing Cardiff ‘keeper.

After a period of sparring, Derby doubled their lead with 14 minutes remaining as Weimann struck his third goal in three home games.

Thorne, again, was involved as his shot from the edge of the area was pushed away by Marshall and although the ball rolled into a tight angle, Weimann rushed to convert past the ‘keeper and into the far corner.

With just over five minutes remaining, Jones headed a left wing cross over the crossbar, the visitors’ only notable chance of the second 45 minutes as Derby kept chase the second tier’s leading pack.

Derby County: Carson, Christie (Baird, 81), Keogh, Shackell, Warnock; Thorne, Butterfield (Bryson, 71), Johnson; Ince (Russell, 73), Weimann, Martin (C)

Substitutes not used: Grant, Hendrick, Bent, Pearce

Cardiff City: Marshall (C), Peltier, Morrison, Whittingham (Kennedy, 78), Ralls, Jones, Mason (Ameobi, 62), Noone, Dikgacoi (O’Keefe, 71), Connolly, Malone

Substitutes not used: Manga, John, Tamas, Moore, Kennedy

Attendance: 29,526

Tweets by @ dcfcofficial