Nottingham Forest one game away from Premier League return after play-off thriller

Nottingham Forest are just a game away from a return to the Premier League after they won a dramatic penalty shootout against Sheffield United to reach the Championship play-off final.

Forest looked to be in a commanding position after the first leg when they came away from Bramell Lane with a 2-1 win, and the constantly impressive Brennan Johnson extended that lead in the first half at the City Ground.

Sheffield United were much improved from their first leg performance, though, and they were able to level the tie through Morgan Gibbs-White and John Fleck.

That took the tie to extra time, during which Forest goalkeeper Brice Samba made an enormous save to deny Gibbs-White a second.

Samba again came up strong in the shootout, saving three Sheffield United attempts to send his side to Wembley to face Huddersfield.

"We are hopefully going to give so many people a day to remember," Forest boss Steve Cooper told the BBC.

"I can't sum it up at the moment, the reality is that we have another step to go.

"To get through two legs of a semi-final play-off you have to do a bit of everything, you have to play well, have to suffer, have to have a bit of luck and dig in - all of the things you have to do to be a real team we have done.

"Brice was brilliant today, I'm not one for singling people out but its's difficult not to talk about how good he was in terms of the penalties, the saves, the distribution and the calmness.

"He is a big part of what we do on and off the pitch. It's brilliant he got his moment."

Meanwhile, Sheffield United manager Paul Heckingbottom was understandably disappointed, especially after such a fine performance from his side in the second leg.

"We don't get what we deserve sometimes, football's cruel like that," he said.

"We were fantastic from the first whistle, got caught by a sucker punch again, but we responded fantastically well.

"They've done themselves proud, their families proud and myself and the staff proud and that's all we ask for."