On this evidence the best thing Daniel Farke could do is book his Leeds squad seats on a plane heading somewhere hot and let them lounge by a pool until the first leg of their playoff semi-final at Norwich next Sunday.
Five or six days of vitamin D look the best hope for a side mentally and physically shattered by the most exhausting of seasons. Despite collecting 90 points Leeds have missed out on automatic promotion and must now face the club their manager twice led into the top tier.
Faint hope of avoiding the playoffs remained at kick-off but as soon as Ipswich scored against Huddersfield the motorway to the Premier League was in effect barricaded.
It leaves Leeds third and facing a hazardous diversion via East Anglia and, should they make it that far, north-west London.
Leeds could yet end up facing Southampton in the Wembley final but if this really was a dress rehearsal for such a showpiece the psychological advantage will rest with Southampton, a smartly reconfigured counterattacking team.
“We need to find our confidence again and get our rhythm back,” said the Leeds manager, whose side have won one of their past six matches. “I don’t think we threw automatic promotion away. We did really well but we have a very young side and they were understandably more nervous in the run-in.”
Sammie Szmodics' second-half double ensured Blackburn's survival following a 2-0 win at the newly-crowned champions Leicester. The division's top scorer found the net just when Rovers' survival hopes were in the balance as relegation rivals, and the Blackburn manager John Eustace's former club, Birmingham, had just taken the lead against Norwich. However, Szmodics eased fans' nerves and sealed victory in stoppage time when he ran on to a Joe Rankin-Costello pass and beat the Leicester goalkeeper Mads Hermansen to the ball before running it into an empty net for his 27th Championship goal of the season.
Plymouth's 1-0 win over Hull, courtesy of Joe Edwards' goal, and Sheffield Wednesday's win at Sunderland, where Liam Palmer and Josh Windass were on target, confirmed Birmingham fans' worst fears. The Blues' 1-0 victory over Norwich was not enough to save them from the drop to League One.
West Brom's 3-0 win over Preston secured fifth place, overtaking Norwich. Alex Mowatt, Kyle Bartley and Darnell Furlong scored to rubberstamp the Baggies' play-off place, effectively closing the door on Hull.
Rotherham signed off in style for a 5-2 win over Cardiff – only their fifth win of the season as Jordan Hugill and Tom Eaves both scored twice, Sam Nombe adding the other after Nat Phillips and Ollie Tanner had briefly made it 2-2.
QPR made it five wins from their final eight games by beating Coventry 2-1 after first-half goals from Ilias Chair and Morgan Fox, with Jamie Allen responding for the hosts.
Casper De Norre scored the only goal as Millwall won away at Swansea, with the Swans' Jerry Yates and the Lions' Japhet Tanganga both sent off for an off-the-ball incident, with Middlesbrough 3-1 victors at home to Watford as Emmanuel Latte Lath scored his 11th goal in 12 games.
Stoke ended their season in style with a 4-0 thrashing of Bristol City. First-half strikes from Luke Cundle, Tyrese Campbell and Million Manhoef handed the hosts total control. Manhoef completed his brace after the interval with a spectacular strike from range to cap off an impressive win – they end the season six points above the relegation places. PA Media
Southampton arrived here on the back of three straight defeats but they soon demonstrated why their acquisition of 87 points was no fluke. Admittedly this contest turned into something of a phoney war but, even so, West Brom will not be relishing their semi-final with Saints.
“We played some fantastic stuff,” said the Southampton manager, Russell Martin, whose switch to a back three paid dividends. “I think there’s more to come from us. I changed the shape and that’s maybe something we’ll use in the playoffs but the players trained like beasts last week. I’m proud of them.”
He was impressively gracious about Ipswich’s promotion. “They deserved it,” he said. “Everyone was saying Ipswich would fall away but they didn’t and that’s down to Kieran and the team. It shows how good they are that Leeds got 90 points and didn’t go up and we went 25 games unbeaten at one point but finished fourth. This division is so difficult.”
Thick cloud banked low in the skies above Elland Road before kick-off and the home fans’ mood swiftly turned as grey as the weather. When Leeds failed, repeatedly, to clear Southampton’s first corner of the afternoon, Che Adams crossed in Adam Armstrong’s direction and the striker’s half-volley proved far too good for Illan Meslier.
Although Joel Piroe equalised thanks to a crisp right-foot shot after Southampton failed to cope with Wilfried Gnonto’s cross, the visitors swiftly answered back.
Thanks to startling pace and extremely nifty footwork, Kyle Walker-Peters performed wonders to keep the ball in play before crossing for the on-rushing and slackly marked Will Smallbone to restore his team’s advantage courtesy of a first-time shot. Junior Firpo endured an awful game at left-back for Leeds and will not enjoy viewing replays.
Taylor Harwood-Bellis assisted Walker-Peters in thoroughly subduing Crysencio Summerville, the Championship’s player of the season, but Harwood-Bellis took time out from helping shadow the left-winger to rattle the bar with a header.
It highlighted the generosity of a home defence that seemed to spring leaks virtually every time Southampton broke yet Farke appeared unsurprised.
“Today was a bit of a wild game and we took a risky approach,” said Farke. “I always expected it would be a really difficult season. Now, though, we have a new competition with three finals.
“It will be something special, quite emotional, to return to Norwich but my only focus is Leeds. We still have something to be excited about; we can still achieve something really special.”
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Leicester | 46 | 50 | 98 |
| 2 | Ipswich | 46 | 35 | 96 |
| 3 | Leeds | 46 | 38 | 90 |
| 4 | Southampton | 46 | 24 | 87 |
| 5 | West Brom | 46 | 23 | 75 |
| 6 | Norwich | 46 | 15 | 73 |
| 7 | Hull | 46 | 8 | 70 |
| 8 | Middlesbrough | 46 | 9 | 69 |
| 9 | Coventry | 46 | 10 | 64 |
| 10 | Preston North End | 46 | -11 | 63 |
| 11 | Bristol City | 46 | 2 | 62 |
| 12 | Cardiff | 46 | -17 | 62 |
| 13 | Millwall | 46 | -10 | 59 |
| 14 | Swansea | 46 | -6 | 57 |
| 15 | Watford | 46 | 0 | 56 |
| 16 | Sunderland | 46 | -2 | 56 |
| 17 | QPR | 46 | -10 | 56 |
| 18 | Stoke | 46 | -11 | 56 |
| 19 | Sheff Wed | 46 | -24 | 53 |
| 20 | Plymouth | 46 | -11 | 51 |
| 21 | Blackburn | 46 | -16 | 51 |
| 22 | Birmingham | 46 | -15 | 50 |
| 23 | Huddersfield | 46 | -29 | 45 |
| 24 | Rotherham | 46 | -52 | 27 |
