'It has been a wonderful season'

Former Leicester winger Matt Piper says the Foxes' final day defeat to Blackburn took "little bit of shine" away from the day they lifted the Championship trophy but it takes nothing away from a "wonderful" season.

Leicester lost 2-0 at home in a game that saw Rovers secure survival on the final day.

"They lacked quality today against Blackburn but it's been a long, tough season," Piper told the When You're Smiling podcast.

"Enzo Maresca went with his go to XI, the only one missing was Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, and the performance looked tired, it did lack quality.

"But, it doesn't matter, the job was already done previous to kick-off. Blackburn came, had a really good gameplan, sat deep, and then had a really outstanding player on the counter-attack in Sammie Szmodics.

"It has taken a little bit of shine off the day but I'm sure it will all be forgotten when the trophy comes out.

"We are champions, we finish on 97 points and it has been a wonderful, wonderful season."

Blackburn needed the points to secure their survival and Piper believes facing a team with so much to play for on the final day made securing the title against Preston all the more important.

"That was the game wasn't it?," he added. "That was the game to go and win and stamp your authority on the league and make sure that you're champions of the Championship and we did that. It would have just been nice in front of the home crowd today to go out in style.

"It wasn't to be but once that trophy comes out it doesn't matter that we've lost this last game. We've still got the most points in the league and go back to the Premier League as champions."

Listen to the full episode on BBC Sounds