Play-off tension at the City Ground
Sheffield United manager Paul Heckingbottom was shown a yellow card following an altercation with Nottingham Forest defender Djed Spence during the second leg of their play-off tie on Tuesday night.
Forest took an early lead on the night
Following their 2-1 win at Bramall Lane last weekend, Brennan Johnson gave the Reds extra breathing room with a first half strike to put Steve Cooper’s side 3-1 up on aggregate. The Blades later equalised through Morgan Gibbs-White.
Brennan Johnson’s goal against Sheffield United puts him in a very exclusive club of players to have scored in both legs of a play-off semi for Forest.
The other player to do so? His father, David Johnson pic.twitter.com/c2Bt3DR58I
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) May 17, 2022
With Forest in the ascendancy and the Blades in danger of fading away after a positive start, tensions threatened to boil over at the City Ground as the United boss lost his cool.
As he watched Forest full back Spence take his time over a throw-in before dropping the ball, Heckingbottom aggressively slammed the ball into the chest of Spence.
While the defender smirked at the incident, others were not so happy as goalscorer Johnson and a series of other Forest players confronted Heckingbottom, leading to everyone on the pitch getting involved.
Weird, weird behaviour from Paul Heckingbottom. Fair play to Djed Spence for staying so calm pic.twitter.com/yg3HZ7awtJ
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) May 17, 2022
The away side got themselves back into contention early into the second half
After cooling down people on both parties, experienced referee Michael Oliver showed the Blades boss a yellow card while Forest captain Joe Worrall and teammate Ryan Yeates spoke to Spence, presumably to prevent him from losing his cool.
Despite their lacklustre end to the first half, the away side came out the blocks early in the second half and found a goal back through Morgan Gibbs-White to make it 1-1 on the night and 3-2 on aggregate to Forest.
The winner of this will face Huddersfield Town in the play-off final at Wembley Stadium on Sunday May 29.
