'Written off' - Rival player makes frank Leeds United admission with apology

Norwich City captain Kenny McLean has made a frank Leeds United admission with an apology following Thursday night’s hammering at Elland Road.

A strong second half to the Championship season led to Norwich finishing sixth and heading for the play-offs but the Canaries saw their promotion bid ended via a semi-final second leg Whites blitz.

Four days after a goalless draw in Sunday’s first leg at Carrow Road, Norwich found themselves 2-0 down after just 20 minutes of Thursday’s second leg at LS11 and ultimately on their way to a 4-0 defeat.

Speaking to the club’s official website, Canaries skipper McLean gave a very honest assessment of the display, admitting Norwich gave themselves a mountain to climb and offering an apology to the club’s travelling fans

“We came this far and that's our last performance of the season, that's the most disappointing thing,” said McLean. “The work we've put in to get to this stage, it's disappointing, think back to December, January-time, where we were written off. "There's so much hard work to get us into this situation, that's the way we go out. That's the most disappointing thing, we didn't give ourselves a chance. It's so hard really, I get the frustrations from the fans, it's so hard to take for everybody. "As a player, you want to be involved in these games, these situations, you need to live off the occasion, but we didn't. We gave ourselves a mountain to climb early on, we didn't get off the bottom and do anything in the game."

Sending a message to Norwich’s fans, McLean declared: "They got us to this stage. They deserve more, they deserve to have a better day than what they've had today. Even if we give more and lose a game, it wasn't enough and we want to apologise for that, they've been outstanding."