Derby County fell to a 4-0 defeat to Aston Villa at Villa Park on Saturday afternoon in the Sky Bet Championship.

Frank Lampard made six changes to the side that faced Nottingham Forest earlier in the week, handing 18-year-old midfielder Max Bird his first league start.

Despite the loss, the Rams remain on the outskirts of the play-off places in seventh, just three points behind Bristol City in sixth.

All four goals came in the first-half for the Villians with Conor Hourihane securing a brace while Tammy Abraham and Jack Grealish added to the scoreline.

The home side took the lead inside ten minutes when Grealish, in his return from injury, lifted the ball over the Rams’ defence as Abraham and Hourihane ran through. Abraham got the first shot which was batted away by Scott Carson into the path of Hourihane who took a touch before slotting in.

Villa kept the pressure on with Albert Adomah firing over on the 20-minute mark. Then three goals in the final ten minutes of the half came. Grealish fed Adomah down the right whose low cross found Abraham at the far post to tap in.

Hourihane got his second of the game on 45 minutes when he slid it past Scott Carson on his first touch from 12 yards after Abraham turned from scorer to provider.

Moments later, in added time, Andre Wisdom blocked a Villa shot to end the ball out for a corner. Grealish struck on the volley on the end of the corner to fire into the top corner.

The Rams had their first opportunity to cut the lead after an hour when they were awarded a free-kick from 20 yards out which Harry Wilson fired over.

Abraham looked to get his second of the game with 15 minutes left to play when he unleashed from close-range, but this time his shot was met by Carson.

Minutes later, Fikayo Tomori blocked an effort by El Ghazi from six yards out.

Derby will now return home for four consecutive games at Pride Park Stadium which begins with Wigan Athletic on Tuesday night.

Aston Villa: Steer; Elmohamady, Elphick (Taylor, 68), Ming, Hause; Grealish (Carroll, 71), Whelan, Hourihane; Adomah, Abraham, El Ghazi (Green, 80)

Unused Subs: Kalinic, Jedinak, Bjarnason, Kodjia

Derby County: Carson; Wisdom, Keogh (C), Tomori, Cole (Malone, 45); Bird, Evans (Wilson, 45); Jozefzoon, Holmes, Bennett (Bogle, 56) ,Marriott,

Unused Subs: Roos, Waghorn, Johnson, Mitchell-Lawson,