Sheffield United are unchanged from the team that walloped Fulham 4-0 on the final day of the regular season, while Steve Cooper has almost completely shuffled his pack from the match with Hull. Steve Cook returns to the team, as does Jack Colback comes at left wing-back, with Djed Spence on the right. Ryan Yates will partner James Garner in the centre of midfield. Keinan Davis is named on the bench, the hope is he will be it for Wembley.
Here are the teams
Sheffield United: Foderingham, Basham, Egan, Robinson, Osborn, Norwood, Fleck, Stevens, Berge, Gibbs-White, Ndiaye. Subs: A Davies, B Davies, Baldock, Hourihane, Osula, Norrington-Davies, Jebbison.
Unchanged at the Lane for today’s Play-Off Semi-Final! 🔴
! ⚔️✊ pic.twitter.com/D511h0c66N
— Sheffield United (@SheffieldUnited) May 14, 2022
Nottingham Forest: Samba, Worrall, Cook, McKenna, Spence, Yates, Garner, Colback, Zinckernagel, Surridge, Johnson. Subs: Horvath, Figeueiredo, Davis, Laryea, Mighten, Cafu, Lolley.
Preamble
Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott, Arthur Seaton, Sean Bean, Deep Purple sticksman Ian Paice, Joe Root, DH Lawrence, just a few names who will be watching on in this playoff game between two clubs who bloody hate the playoffs. Forest have never won a playoff tie, while Blades have played in eight playoff campaigns and been successful in none of them. Forest finished fourth after 46 games of the regular season while Blades finished fifth. The sense was that Forest, under Steve Cooper, left their revival too late after changing their manager in September, but the same is also true of Paul Heckingbottom, who replaced Slavisa Jokanovic as late as November at Bramall Lane. To get to Wembley and the £170m game, they have to get their teams through these 180 minutes over two legs. This is massive.
Join me, kick-off is at 3pm UK time.