Andi Weimann is gutted to sit out of Saturday’s meeting with his former club but reckons spectators are in for a close contest between two of the Championship’s highly-fancied teams. Weimann suffered a knee injury in pre-season, ruling him out of Derby’s early fixtures – including the weekend 5.30pm match at the iPro Stadium. The Austrian joined Villa as a 15-year-old from Rapid Vienna and made 134 appearances, scoring 21 goals before departing in June 2015. A likeable forward and popular dressing room figure, Weimann hopes to be back training within the next two weeks.Interestingly, Derby’s early season form mirrors that of Villa – a win, draw and defeat to their names. Nigel Pearson’s side head into the tea-time clash on the back of their first victory of the season – a single-goal win at Preston in midweek.And, although clearly frustrated and disappointed to miss out against his former club, Weimann is looking forward to what he believes will be a tight affair. He said: “I would’ve loved to have played in the game.“Hopefully I’ll be able to play in the match at Villa Park later on in the season. “That’ll be even more special - to come back to Villa Park.“There have been a lot of changes at my old club over the last year. “I still speak to a couple of their players - I live close to Alan Hutton and chat to Ashley Westwood – and the team has made a solid start.“In terms of our own form, we won in the last minute on Tuesday – and so everyone is buzzing that we’ve got the first win of the season.“We’re now looking forward to Saturday and being back at home again. “There’s no question that Villa are a massive football club coming down to the Championship so everyone is obviously expecting them to do well. “We’re challenging ourselves to be up there with them. “I think it will be a very tight game. I don’t think either side will run away with it. I think it will be an interesting one to watch.” Since his move across the Midlands, Weimann has settled in his new surroundings. After suffering defeat in the Championship play-off semi-finals last time out and coming close to a top-flight return on multiple occasions since relegation eight years ago, County are expected to challenge once again.The attacker is confident the Rams can go one step further under the stewardship of their experienced new boss. Weimann added: “I did all of pre-season before getting injured.“I trained for four weeks and enjoyed working with the new manager.“It’s been a lot of hard work. He’s got us ready as a team and hopefully we can show that during the season. “The aim is promotion. Over the last few years we’ve been close. “Our goal is to definitely promotion. We’ll give it everything and see where we end up.”
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Topic: Derby County vs Aston Villa Pre-Match Thread (Read 13403 times)
