Daniel Farke out to change Leeds United narrative when temperature turns up for flat Whites against Norwich City

Truth be told, it has been more of a drunken stagger than a march. As for the record, it is not exactly one to cherish.

This season, Leeds have become the first side to reach 90 points yet still fall short of automatic promotion to the Premier League.

There was a glimmer of hope for the Whites heading into the final game of the regular season. A particularly forceful rendition of ‘Marching on Together’ preceded kick-off but it was the Saints who did the marching on the pitch.

Once a seemingly impenetrable force in the Championship, Leeds were vulnerable defensively almost from the get-go. Adam Armstrong had acres of space for the opener, despite being positioned in the middle of the Whites box.

Joel Piroe displayed a predatory instinct to level proceedings but his work was undone a mere 15 minutes later.

A costly error of judgement from Junior Firpo gave Kyle Walker-Peters the chance to deliver for Will Smallbone, who clinched three points for the visitors.

Ipswich Town followed Leicester City into the Premier League, securing a 2-0 win over Huddersfield Town to clinch their second consecutive promotion.

While the Tractor Boys had their day in the sun, Leeds looked deflated under dull West Yorkshire clouds.

Farke now has the unenviable task of picking a squad admittedly lacking confidence up from the floor. Perhaps fortunately, the task of reinvigorating players is one the Leeds boss has become familiar with.

Speaking after the defeat to Southampton, Farke said: “After this game, I am a bit tired. This week was not the easiest, to lift the players up and make them believe there is a chance, to convince them to play men against men, to go for this game, it was an exhausting week.”

Utter the phrase ‘play-offs’ to a Leeds fan and just watch as their eyes roll back into their head. It is a phrase synonymous with heartbreak for the Whites, who have been the nearly men on so many previous occasions.

Those painful nights against Derby County and Millwall, as well as that crushing afternoon in Cardiff, linger in the memory like flies you cannot swat.

It is for this reason it is perhaps beneficial those games pre-dated the Farke era. The weight of play-offs will not rest quite as heavily on the Leeds manager’s shoulders, mainly because he has no experience of them.

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During his Norwich City reign, he steered clear of the drama by lifting the Championship title in each of his promotion-winning campaigns.

He said: “You know how my record is in the play-offs? I never lost a game - because I’ve never played in the play-offs, by the way.

“It doesn’t matter. Leeds have lost in the play-offs before, but it was a completely different group, I was not in charge, so it doesn’t matter.

“Obviously we are here to change it. That’s the reason why I’m here.”

For all the talk of ‘bottling’ there will inevitably be, Farke has remained adamant Leeds were the chasers, rather than the chased.

They were certainly the ones in pursuit on the final day as they failed to close the gap on Ipswich. The regular season post-mortem will understandably feature a dissection of the recent weeks.

Since the international break, Leeds have lost the cohesion and the bite that made them such a revered outfit in the division.

However, Farke has consistently drawn attention back to the beginning of the campaign. Pre-season kicked off with a mass exodus helped by some arguably unhelpful loan clauses

A protracted transfer saga followed, with Wilfried Gnonto at the centre of it. Leeds could then not fill a bench with players Farke felt were adequate.

It is this chain of events Farke views as more costly, rather than the one that has developed in the run-in.

Farke said: “I don’t feel we’ve thrown it away. Yes, it felt that with a better run-in it was possible, but to be honest, I think the reason why we are not in the top two is not the last four weeks, but the first two months.

“If you said we’d finish on 90 points in third position, it wouldn’t be the worst. Yes, the last couple of weeks it doesn’t feel like this in this moment.

“But, in two days, we will feel excited. It doesn’t matter what happened before. It’s a completely different group, different people.

“We want to achieve something special here and doing this perhaps by being there for the first time in history with a good play-off outcome, yes I would take it.”

There is romance and irony in the fact Leeds will now face Norwich in the semi-finals of the play-offs. They were the first club to give Farke an opportunity on English shores, a club he developed a deep affection for over the course of his four years there.

Farke said: "It is a bit special. My first return back to Carrow Road was quite emotional. But even the second game, it felt like business as normal.”

Leeds United: Meslier, Byram (Roberts 78), Rodon, Ampadu, Firpo; Gruev (Gelhardt 82), Kamara (Gray 62); Summerville, Rutter (Joseph 61), Gnonto (Anthony 62); Piroe.

Unused substitutes: Darlow, Cresswell, Cooper, Shackleton.

Southampton: McCarthy, Walker-Peters (Bree 83), Stephens, Bednarek, Harwood-Bellis, Manning (Fraser 45); Downes (Rothwell 66), Smallbone, Aribo; Armstrong (Stewart 83), Adams (Sulemana 61).

Unused substitutes: Lumley, Charles, Edozie, Brooks.

Referee: Matthew Donohue (Southend)