Leeds United goalkeeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell feels that they team did not deserve to win promotion from the Championship last season and has taken a swipe at Derby County.

After challenging for a place in the top two all season, the Whites just missed out on automatic promotion to the Sheffield United, after losing five of their final nine league matches.

Marcelo Bielsa's side had another opportunity to go up via the play-offs and everything seemed to be going to plan when Stuart Dallas put Leeds 2-0 up on aggregate in the second leg of their semi-final against Derby.

However, Leeds capitulated in the second half as Rams pulled off one of the greatest comebacks in play-off history to win 4-3 on aggregate and completely stun the Elland Road crowd.

Peacock-Farrell admitted that the defeat was very difficult to take, but said that Leeds did not deserve to win promotion, because of their performances towards the end of the campaign.

"Reflecting on the season, obviously it was a real shame how it ended. You can say we didn't deserve that, but you don't get out the league unless you deserve it," said Peacock-Farrell, as quoted by Leeds Live.

"At the end of the day, after the performances in the last 15 games, we didn't deserve promotion."

The goalkeeper could not resist taking a swipe at Derby though and admitted that he was relieved when the Rams lost to Aston Villa in the play-off final.

"It hits home hard. I couldn't watch football since that finished. I didn't want to watch anything. When Aston Villa played Derby in the final, I was training. When I found out who went up, I was slightly happier."

Peacock-Farrell started the campaign as the first-choice goalkeeper at Elland Road, but lost his place in the Leeds side after Kiko Casilla joined from Real Madrid on a free transfer in January.

The 22-year-old conceded 32 goals in 28 Championship appearances for the Whites and kept an impressive ten clean sheets.

The Verdict

Losing in the play-offs to Derby must have been very difficult for Leeds to take, so you can understand Peacock-Farrell taking some satisfaction in the Rams' failure to go up.

Maybe the goalkeeper is right that the Whites did not deserve to win promotion in the end, but the players will hopefully be able to learn from the experience ahead of next season.

Peacock-Farrell was an important player for Leeds during the first half of last season and he will be hoping to be given another chance as the first-choice goalkeeper next term.