Frank Lampard responds to taunt from Leeds fans

Derby manager Frank Lampard has described the chant by Leeds supporters about him as “good fun”, and hit back with a jibe about the club’s long spell away from the Premier League.

The travelling fans taunted Lampard over the ‘Spygate’ incident earlier in the season, singing a new chant to the Oasis classic ‘Stop Crying Your Heart Out’, as Leeds won the Championship play-off semi-final first leg 1-0 at Pride Park on Saturday.

The Rams boss was asked whether he had been affected by it ahead of Wednesday’s second leg at Elland Road, with opponents Leeds targeting a first return to England’s top flight since 2004.

“No, of course not, it is good fun,” Lampard said.

“As a Chelsea player, there was a rivalry always with Leeds. We didn’t play them that much because we were in the Premier League, but that comes with it.

“I will take a song all day long. My worry is what the players do on the pitch.”

The lyrics Leeds fans have adopted to the Oasis song are: “All of the spies / Are hidden away / Just try not to worry / You’ll beat us some day / We beat you at home / We beat you away / Stop crying Frank Lampard.”

Derby have lost all three of their meetings against Marcelo Bielsa’s side this season, but Lampard is confident his side will not be overawed by the challenge of playing at Elland Road.

“It is a strong atmosphere. It is Elland Road. It’s a stadium with history,” he said.

“I didn’t play there much myself. I played there a couple of times.

“But I know it will be a tough atmosphere for the players, but they need to rise to that. You need to try and turn that around in a positive for us. There is pressure in this game for both teams no matter what way you look at it.

“This is what the lads, when they were young boys, when they wanted to be football players, were dreaming about – these games, not the mundane ones we can play with a lot more ease. These are the pressure ones which define us.”

The build-up to the league meeting in January centred around Bielsa’s spying tactics, after the Leeds boss admitted to sending a man, who transpired to be a Leeds employee, to watch their opponents’ training session.

Leeds won 2-0 in Yorkshire in January, but Lampard highlighted his side’s run in the Carabao Cup, where they beat Manchester United and pushed former club Chelsea, as evidence his players will cope with the pressure.

“The Elland Road game before has no bearing on this….We’ve played at Elland Road, we’ve played at Stamford Bridge, we’ve played at Old Trafford, we’ve played at Nottingham Forest,” Lampard added.

“Tough atmospheres all around. The lads just need to know that’s what it is. It’s not going to be anything massively different from that.

“It is going to be a lot of noise, pressure when we have the ball or maybe on the referee. That comes with big football [matches], it comes with big stadiums. It is something we will need to deal with it.”

Derby players were furious at the weekend after referee Craig Pawson overturned a penalty against Leeds, awarded for a foul by Jack Harrison on Jayden Bogle, having consulted his linesman.

“I wouldn’t say it was unique, but it doesn’t happen often where a referee takes a moment, gives a penalty and then takes it away via the linesman,” Lampard said of the incident, after he described the decision as “like human VAR”.

“The linesman gave a defensive foul, which it wasn’t, so that was the disappointment. You don’t see that much. When the referee gives a decision that is normally final.

“Sometimes decisions level themselves out. Let’s see if one comes our way at Elland Road.”

(c) Sky News 2019: Frank Lampard responds to taunt from Leeds fans