'No love lost' - Former Leeds United man predicts Derby County result amid Frank Lampard play-off point
Leeds United have mixed memories of their recent encounters against Derby County.
David Prutton isn’t expecting any love to be lost when Leeds United and Derby County meet for the first time in over four years on Saturday.
Leeds and Derby knocked up a brief but rather fierce rivalry before the former’s promotion in 2020, with six games in two years producing a rollercoaster of results. Marcelo Bielsa’s spy-gate saga did little to ease tensions and a mad-cap play-off semi-final win handed Frank Lampard’s Rams their own personal victory at the end of the 2018/19 campaign.
Promotion the following year pulled Leeds away from Derby, who were then relegated to League One, but the pair are both back in the second-tier and meet for the first time this season on Saturday. And Prutton expects the tit-for-tat between fans to pick up where it left off - with the home side to come out on top.
“A cracking game wasn’t it, the [2019] play-off semi-final,” Prutton told Sky Sports. “It feels like an awfully long time ago. What happened to Frank Lampard? Oh yeah, Coventry manager. There’ll certainly be no love lost. 2-1 Leeds.”
Plenty has changed since that chaotic play-off semi-final second-leg at Elland Road, although some intriguing remnants remain. Patrick Bamford started for Leeds that night but will likely only be good enough for the bench come Saturday, while a young Pascal Struijk will captain his side this weekend, having watched on from the bench five years ago.
Most interestingly, however, is the presence of Jayden Bogle. The right-back broke into senior football at Derby County and was part of Lampard’s triumphant side, even celebrating with his teammates by mimicking a pair of binoculars - a nod to the spy-gate saga.
Pictures of Bogle, Tom Lawrence and Fikayo Tomori poking fun at Leeds resurfaced following the former’s £5million summer move to Leeds. And he was quizzed on it after joining, but ruled out what would have been a bold repeat of the celebration for his new club.
"Nah I'll put that one to bed, I won't be doing that again," he joked. "But I'm sure I can come up with a celebration that can build the relationship. They were massive games, the game at at Elland Road was crazy, the atmosphere before the game, how loud it was. It plays a massive part in getting the team going so I'm looking forward to playing in it.
“I've always noticed the atmosphere at Elland Road, it's fantastic, the fans get right behind you. That was a massive experience and now I'm on the right side now I can use that as fuel going into games as well."