Paul Heckingbottom praises Sheffield United character as they come from behind twice to reach Wembley FA Cup semi-final

The Blades manager was delighted with the character his side showed to come from behind twice and beat Blackburn Rovers 3-2 in a pulsating FA Cup quarter-final neither side deserved to lose.

But it was the hosts who took their place at Wembley in the semi-finals, through a Sam Gallagher own goal, an Ollie McBurnie strike after 82 minutes and Doyle's long-range effort around half a minute into stoppage time.

"I'm pleased with the result, with the performance and proud because I think it was a fantastic game and both teams played their part," said Heckingbottom.

"It was the game I thought it would be. The pleasing thing is we went behind twice to one of the best if not the best counter-attacking team in this league. They're really good at it with lots of pace and now how to exploit the space with their attacking players and set up a team that way.

"So for us to go behind twice and come back and win is really, really pleasing."

Blackburn withstood a spell of pressure at the start of the second half before Sammie Szmodics put Blackburn 2-1 up. They then hit the post through Ryan Hedges and Wes Foderingham had to make a tremendous double save to keep his side it.

The first goal has been more controversial, a penalty for a Jack Robinson handball after a VAR monitor review. If United were feeling aggrieved by that, the equaliser came via a big deflection from Max Lowe's strike.

"At one point you're a little bit worried when we'd played so well first half, lots of energy, lots of quality, moving the ball well so for the goal we got given against us with VAR..." said Heckingbottom. "I'm for VAR in terms of getting more right than wrong but I see them not given all the time.

"That was a bit of a kick in the teeth and when we went 2-1 behind again and missed a couple of chances you're wondering is it going to be your day but the lads were brilliant.

"We kept going, kept pushing and I felt once it went 2-2, barring Jebbo (Daniel Jebbison) we'd got every attacking player we could have on the pitch and the balance of the team was more or less all-out attack so credit to the guys at the back but I felt (after) that second goal, especially after they went five at the back, I felt it was worth the risk to keep that attacking intent because I felt the momentum of the game was with us."

It looked as though McBurnie's goal had secured extra time but Doyle ensured they went one better with an unstoppable shot.

"Sometimes the ball is 30 yards out and there are some players who are not wanting to shoot, but Tommy is not one of those," said his manager. "He has got good technique, it's a fantastic goal. It was a goal befitting that type of game."

Jon Dahl Tomasson felt the game should have been stopped before the ball came to Doyle, with Tyler Morton going down after being caught in the eye by Iliman Ndiaye.

"I'm bitterly disappointed to lose the game, I think our performance deserved more, the first 80 minutes was extremely good, the boys have done an excellent game," said the former striker. "We should probably have killed the game and you know how cruel and football can be, the way we conceded the third goal is strange.

"The head injury for Morton, they say it was only a finger in the eye, but he would have been standing in that zone where the goal came from. Imagine if it was something really serious?

"I said to the referee 'Normally, you stop a game with a head injury'. I think he knows it. It's okay. Everybody make mistakes, I also make mistakes.

"You can't run when you can't see out of your eye.

"We all know with a head injury you need to stop immediately, it could be very dangerous."