Personal play-off heartbreak at home and abroad fueling Leeds United ahead of Norwich City clash

Memories around Elland Road are still bitterly fresh when it comes to the 2018/19 campaign and that semi-final defeat by Derby County. Club captain Liam Cooper, Jamie Shackleton and Patrick Bamford were all involved, though the latter missed the first leg through suspension. Bamford holds by far and away the most experience in the dressing room when it comes to the play-offs, with seven appearances to his name at three different clubs.

The striker played 36 minutes across both semi-final legs as Middlesbrough were beaten by Aston Villa in 2018, three years after reaching the final with Boro. Bamford operated on the left in a 2-1 first leg victory over Brentford, dropped to the bench for the entire second leg and played up top for 90 minutes in the final at Wembley, which was won by Norwich City. That was his second consecutive final defeat, having helped Derby County to overcome Brighton in the semi-final a year earlier. He played just a minute of the final as Queens Park Rangers clinched promotion in front of 87,348 at Wembley.

Connor Roberts knows how it feels to go all the way and fall at the last hurdle, too. He reached the play-offs with Swansea City in the 2019/20 season. With Leeds team-mate Joe Rodon sitting out through a quad strain, Roberts played every minute as the Swans beat Brentford 1-0 in the first leg and suffered a 3-1 second leg defeat to go out on aggregate. Less than a year later, as the football calendar returned to something more like normality, the full-back was on the bench as Swansea beat Barnsley in the semi-final first leg, but he played 36 minutes as a substitute in a 1-1 second leg draw that clinched a final berth. And at Wembley he started and finished the game, which Brentford won 2-0. “Things happen, someone had to lose and unfortunately it was us,” said Roberts. “I am big enough and old enough to realise that, we move on.”

The Bees' route to that final took them past Bournemouth in the semi-finals, for whom Jaidon Anthony sat on the bench for both games. Leeds' loanee has got some play-off match minutes, but they came in the National League South with Weymouth in the 2019/20 season. He scored in a 3-2 semi-final win over Dorking and converted the winning penalty in the final against Dartford.

Joe Gelhardt is one of the Leeds-owned players with some play-off experience, but his came with Sunderland during last season's loan spell. The youngster played 90 minutes of a first leg win over Luton Town and 64 minutes in the second leg, as the Hatters overcame a 2-1 deficit with a 2-0 victory of their own to progress to the final. And while Ethan Ampadu, who has skippered the side with Cooper on the bench this season, has also endured play-off pain that came outside English football during his time in Italy. It came at the wrong end of the table, too. The versatile defender finished 17th with Spezia in Serie A, which forced them into a relegation play-off against Hellas Verona. Ampadu was on the scoresheet with his first ever professional goal, but the game ended 3-1 and relegation was confirmed for Spezia.

With so much first-hand knowledge of what it feels like to come out on the wrong side of these big post-regular season games, Farke's men need no extra motivation to change their personal history and that of their club when they come against Norwich City over the course of the next week.