Old wounds to be reopened when Frank Lampard’s Derby reconvene with Leeds in Championship play-offs

With jubilation flowing through Pride Park, you would’ve thought Derby County had just been promoted. Frank Lampard was bouncing, literally, and thousands were joining him in the stands. But as the dust settled on their clinching of a place in the top six, talk moved swiftly to a familiar story of the play-offs, and a climactic clash with Leeds United.

It’ll include dredging up January’s ‘spygate’ scandal once more. Though it was a topic as sore as it was bizarre at the time for Derby – including a comprehensive 2-0 defeat at Elland Road – both managers have already expressed a strong desire to put it all in the past. Lampard acknowledged the media would “make a meal” out of it, while Marcelo Bielsa grew furious and called a journalist “ignorant” for bringing it up after their final-day defeat to Ipswich.

For Derby this clash will indeed be about revenge, but not a revenge aimed at Leeds. A look at their short-term history in the play-offs will explain why, but it’s not pretty. If they fail to make it to the Premier League this year, it’ll be the fourth time they’ve been denied in six seasons. No team would have had such a poor success rate since the play-offs began in 1987. When added to the amount of money poured into the club in the last five years – more than £70m on transfers alone – it puts more pressure behind the scenes on success this time around.

It’s worth noting also the manner in which Derby have lost out. Each time they’ve been so desperately close. In 2014 it was a 90th-minute winner from QPR’s Bobby Zamora that saw the Rams defeated in the final at Wembley. In 2016 they were just a goal away from completing a dramatic comeback away at Hull. And last season, despite taking a 1-0 lead at home, Fulham managed to turn the semi-final around in the second leg. It has always been just out of reach.

This year they face a Leeds who seemed destined to top the Championship under Bielsa. Their battle with Norwich at the summit transitioned slowly into a battle with Sheffield United for second, before a slow decline dragged the Whites back down into the play-offs, losing three of their final four games of the season.

But Lampard – who has never been involved in the play-offs before – understands stopping a Leeds in freefall will be far harder than their form might suggest, and when asked about it he was quick to say: “I think the play-offs change everything. It changes the emotions of the crowd, that cup kind of atmosphere it brings can throw recent form out. I won’t plan to think that they’re in bad form, I’ll plan to think of the Leeds that beat us well, that were looking at Christmas like they were going to win the league.”

This may be his very first season as a manager, and being immediately thrown into the Championship was always expected to be a baptism of fire, but Lampard has got Derby playing with tenacity as well as slick quality. Loan signings Harry Wilson, Fiko Tomori and Mason Mount have all been major contributors, and are fast developing into mature footballers.

Mount and Wilson have collected 30 goals and assists between them, and Tomori, who was named club player of the year, has often displayed a composure at centre-back that many Premier League defences would be lucky to have – including his parent club Chelsea.

A sense of calm, and the ability to hold their nerve, was omnipresent in the side during the latter stages against West Brom on Sunday. Had the score stayed at 1-1, they would’ve handed Middlesbrough sixth place. But it was the visitors who were letting frustrations take over, not Derby. They drove forward with menace, and struck twice in the final 20 minutes to confirm their tie with Leeds. They approached the setback of an equaliser with a mentality that could go a long way in the next two games.

“We need to try to carry that momentum,” said Lampard. “I believe we’ll be underdogs going into it, because we came sixth. There’s a reason we finished points behind Leeds, Villa, and West Brom. It’s been a slightly transitional year, which has probably brought inconsistencies at different times, but the run-in has been good for us, without a doubt. And so let’s go into it hopefully with no fear and try to upset a few people, and try and get results.”

If they can rely on that mindset when needed, it could finally be time for the Rams to bury the woes of their recent play-off past.