Zimbabwe's Rinomhota on target as Timbe makes cameo in Reading defeat to Derby County

Kenya's Ayub Timbe made a cameo appearance as Zimbabwe's Andy Rinomhota scored Reading's consolation goal in their 2-1 loss against Derby County.

Derby County got off to a flying start in Saturday’s Championship encounter with Thomas Lawrence and Wayne Rooney scoring the goals that put them 2-0 up at half-time.

After the restart, Rinomhota halved the deficit for the visitors with his maiden goal in the English second division but it was not enough to save them from defeat.

The Zimbabwean midfielder was on parade for the entire duration alongside Ivory Coast's Yakou Meite while Anglo-Nigerian Ovie Ejaria featured for 82 minutes before making way for Timbe's introduction.

It was Timbe's third league game for Reading since his loan signing from Chinese Super League club Beijing Renhe in January, and he is yet to start a match for the Madejski Stadium outfit.

Despite playing just 31 minutes of football in the Championship so far, the Royals on Friday confirmed ongoing talks with the 27-year-old’s parent club over the extension of his temporary contract until the end of July.

Reading are yet to win a game since the restart of the league from the coronavirus hiatus. Saturday's defeat moved them to 14th in the table with 49 points after 39 matches, seven points above the relegation zone.

They will be aiming to return to winning ways when they host high-flying Brentford at the Madejski Stadium on Tuesday.

On the international scene, Rinomhota earned his first invitation to the Zimbabwe national team in May 2018 for the 2018 Cosafa Cup but he was unable to join the Warriors because he did not renounce his British citizenship to get a local passport as required by Zimbabwean law.

The 23-year-old joined Reading in 2015 and rose through the ranks before establishing himself in Mark Bowen’s team.

Rinomhota has made 30 league appearances for the Royals so far in this campaign.