A rival player has delivered an honest assessment of Leeds United.

Following the crushing defeat at Elland Road on Thursday night, Norwich City captain Kenny McLean apologised and made an honest admission about Leeds United.

After a dominant second half to the Championship season, Norwich finished sixth and qualified for the play-offs. However, a Whites blitz in the semi-final second leg dashed the Canaries’ hopes of promotion.

In the second leg on Thursday at LS11, Norwich fell behind 2-0 after just 20 minutes, eventually losing 4-0, four days after the first leg ended in a goalless draw at Carrow Road on Sunday.

Canaries captain McLean offered a very candid evaluation of the performance, acknowledging that Norwich set themselves a mountain to climb and apologising to the team’s travelling supporters, in an interview with the club’s official website.

The most upsetting part, according to McLean, is that after coming this far, that was our final performance of the season. “The effort we’ve invested to reach this point is disheartening; recall how we were written off in December and January.”We have worked extremely hard to reach to this point, and that is how we exit. The most disheartening aspect is that we failed to give ourselves a chance. It’s incredibly difficult; I understand the supporters’ frustrations; it’s difficult for everyone to bear.

“You need to live off the occasion as a player and want to be part in these games and circumstances, but we didn’t. We started the game with a mountain to conquer; we never got off the ground or accomplished anything.”

McLean said, “They got us to this stage,” in an apparent message to the Norwich supporters. They are deserving of better; they should be able to enjoy a day that is better than this one. They’ve been amazing, so even if we give it our all and lose a game, it wasn’t enough, and we want to apologise.”

“You want to be a part of these games, these circumstances as a player; you have to seize the moment, but we didn’t. We started the game with a mountain to climb and didn’t do anything to get off the bottom.”

McLean said, “They got us to this stage,” in a message to the supporters of Norwich. They are worthy of more; they ought to have experienced a better day than they did today. We want to apologise because, despite our best efforts, it wasn’t enough to win a game; they have been exceptional.”