English League Division One play-offs, semi-final second leg: (Sheffield United win 5-4 on aggregtae)Never-say-die Sheffield United staged a remarkable comeback to book their place in the First Division play-off final against Wolves.
Neil Warnock's side looked dead and buried with almost an hour of a pulsating game gone as they trailed to Nottingham Forest goals from the prolific David Johnson and Andy Reid.
But as so often this season, the Blades simply do not know the meaning of defeat as they dug deep into their reserves of team spirit to book a May 26th battle at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium against Wolves.
In a fast and frantic encounter, Forest went ahead in the 30th minute through David Johnson.
John Curtis inexplicably played a square ball into the path of an advancing Johnson, and the prolific striker needed no second invitation to run on and smash the ball past the advancing Paddy Kenny.
And Forest looked set for the Millennium Stadium final when Andrew Reid made it two 13 minutes into the second half.
A quickly-taken free-kick as Riccardo Scimeca combined with Darren Huckerby and eventually Mathieu Louis-Jean.
The left-back's cross to the far post exposed United and there was Republic of Ireland Under-21 international Reid to fire the ball home.
But you can never write United off and within two minutes they were back in the game.
A Scimeca foul on Asaba on the edge of the area led to Brown striking home his 22nd goal of the season albeit off the edge of the wall and Forest skipper Des Walker as Ward was totally wrong-footed.
United then stormed forward in search of the equaliser, with Forest forced to defend desperately on occasions. However, the equaliser duly arrived in the 68th minute.
A long punt from Kenny was initially missed by a jumping Asaba, only for the ball to land at the feet of Steve Kabba to take a touch before sending a stunning volley beyond Ward for his 11th of the season and his first since April 5th. The two sides were level 1-1 after the first leg and went into extra time at 2-2.
Warnock then made a double substitution at the start of the second period of extra-time, with Wayne Allison and Paul Peschisolido replacing Asaba and Peter Ndlovu.
It was Jagielka who again saved United in the 109th minute as an error by Page led to Darren Huckerby squaring the ball to Johnson for a sidefoot curler which was blocked by the 20-year-old.
Three minutes later United took the lead as Peschisolido latched onto another long ball launched forward by Kenny.
The Canada international twisted and turned, first inside Louis-Jean, then Walker before drilling a low shot past Ward.
Walker then headed into his own goal from a Kabba cross and United looked safe, but within a minute Forest gave themselves a lifeline when Jon-Olav Hjelde - a 114th minute sub for Gareth Will. But that was Forest's last chance as the final whistle sounded.
SHEFFIELD UNITED: Kenny, Curtis, Jagielka, Page, Kozluk, Ndlovu (Peschisolido 105), Rankine, Brown, Tonge, Asaba (Allison 105), Windass (Kabba 45). Subs Not Used: McCall, Montgomery. Booked: Tonge, Brown. Goals: Brown 60, Kabba 68, Peschisolido 112, Walker 117 og.
NOTTM FOREST: Ward, Louis-Jean, Williams (Hjelde 114), Walker, Brennan, Thompson, Scimeca, Huckerby, Reid, Johnson, Harewood (Lester 61). Subs Not Used: Bopp, Jess, Roche. Booked: Walker, Huckerby. Goals: Johnson 30, Reid 58, Page 119 og.
Referee: P Walton (Northamptonshire).
