SWEET FEELING FOR BIELSA’S DIAMONDS
LEEDS IN TITLE PARTY
DERBY 1 LEEDS 3
THE strains of Sweet Caroline from the Leeds dressing room echoed around the stadium. There was nothing much to get in the way.
They belted out Neil Diamond’s classic after celebrating pitchside with champagne and blue and yellow smoke flares. Diamonds the lot of them.
Marcelo Bielsa’s boys finally celebrated that sweetest of wins, knowing beforehand their 16-year Premier League exile was over.
You did not need binoculars to see this day was always going to be about Leeds, the guard of honour confirming this was the newly-crowned champions’ special day.
Derby’s players clapped their fierce rivals on to the pitch, although there is no love lost between the two and that stretches back long before the infamous ‘Spygate’ controversy of last season.
There had hardly been a chance of note when Chris Martin fired the Rams into the lead with a shot which flew in off Luke Ayling in the 54th minute.
It was a lead they held for two minutes, Pablo Hernandez striking an angled shot home and Jamie Shackleton firing Leeds into the lead in the 75th-minute. Just to make sure, Rams defender Matt Clarke deflected Ezgjan Alioski’s cross past his own keeper to seal victory.
Bielsa said: “I’m very happy with the joy this has brought to the supporters and the city of Leeds. Being champions makes me very happy.”
Skipper Liam Cooper said: “It’s unbelievable. It doesn’t feel real, but it is. Leeds United are back. It’s been a tough 16 years, we’ve been to the bottom and now we can enjoy it and deservedly so. We’ve been the best team all season through sheer sacrifice.”
Defender Stuart Dallas said: “It’s not sunk in because the games come thick and fast. We enjoyed the moment and we played like champions.”
DERBY (4-2-3-1): Roos 6; Bogle 6, Davies 6, Clarke 6, Forsyth 6 (Buchanan 64, 5); Rooney 6, Bird 6 (Marriott 82); Waghorn 7, Sibley 7 (Shinnie 64, 5), Lawrence 5 (Knight 8, 5); Martin 6.
Goal: Martin 54.
LEEDS (4-2-3-1): Casilla 7; Berardi 5 (Ayling 33, 5), White 7, Struijk 6, Douglas 7; Shackleton 7, Dallas 6; Poveda 7 (Harrison 77), Hernandez 8, Alioski 6; Roberts 6 (Bamford 82).
Goals: Hernandez 56, Shackleton 75, Clarke 84 og.