Derby County Players Remind Leeds United Of Spygate With Brilliant Celebration

Derby County players and manager Frank Lampard revealed that success against Leeds United in the Championship play-off semi final was made even better after the controversial spygate incident in January.

In January Marcelo Bielsa and Leeds United caused huge controversy when Derby County spotted a Leeds employee spying on their training sessions ahead of the two teams playing each other in the Championship.

At the time Leeds were leading the league and Bielsa revealed that he had spied on every team in England's second tier and it seemed to affect Derby manager Frank Lampard around the game, that Leeds won.

The two sides met in the play-off semi final. Leeds won the first game at the iPro Stadium at the weekend, making it three wins from three against County this season. And the Leeds fans chanted at Lampard about 'spygate.'

Leeds took the lead in the second leg, at Elland Road, but in a topsy turvy brilliantly dramatic game Derby came back to win 4-2 on the night and 4-3 on aggregate, to grab their place in the final against Aston Villa.

After the game Lampard was asked about the chants and the former Chelsea midfielder said, "Maybe it is sweeter because of the chants. I'm not gonna lie. I've heard a lot of people saying I'm crying about Spygate. I haven't thought about Spygate. We've prepared and got a result."

And the Derby players were more than happy to remind their opponents about the whole situation:

Jack Marriott came on as an enforced substitution in the first half and on the verge of half-time he levelled on the night, after Stuard Dallas had made it 2-0 on aggregate.

Derby scored a minute after half time to level things up before Harry Wilson's penalty made it 3-2. Dallas scored again to equalise but Marriott scored his second to take Derby through.

The result means that Lampard has made the play-off final in his first season as a manager whilst Leeds remain outside of the top tier of English football again to extend their 15 year run outside of it.

Topics: Frank Lampard, Football News, Marcelo Bielsa, Aston Villa, Derby County, English Football, Leeds United, championship

Ryan Sidle

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