Sheffield United: Blades are left irked by Nottingham Forest’s celebrations at Lane

Forest start as favourites ahead of tonight’s pivotal Championship play-off second leg at the City Ground after a 2-1 success in the first instalment.

A stoppage-time goal from Sander Berge means that the Blades make the short trip down the M1 not without hope, while the visitors’ reaction after Brennan Johnson doubled their advantage on 71 minutes has also made an impression upon United’s players – and provided some motivation in the process.

Robinson said: “You look at their celebrations after the second goal and they thought they had won the leg (tie) there and then. it was embarrassing, to be honest.

“It was the first leg and 70 minutes when the second goal went in. That is a long time to go in a two-leg game, you should never celebrate too early.

“There’s still another 90 minutes to go and we are going to fight for it and give it everything, 100 per cent.

“Our fans will get behind us and we will put them under pressure at their own ground.

“The pressure is on them. We have got nothing to lose now and we will go in there fully focused.

“Even when I was there, there was a lot of pressure to go up. They did not do it and missed out last year.

“There will be massive pressure for them, more than us.

“I have played at the City Ground and was obviously there before Sheffield United. I know the crowd can get on you if you are performing badly and are not at the races. But we can only focus on ourselves as it is about our performance.”

Robinson, who joined United from Forest in January 2020, knows several of the home players well, including Joe Lolley, who he also previously played with at Huddersfield Town.

But any friendships will put to one side for 90 minutes – or potentially longer – this evening.

Robinson added: “Me and Joe get on well. We had a bit (of banter) before the first game, but we have not spoken since.

“I will be seeing and waiting for him (on Tuesday night) to see whether he starts or comes on.

“There’s a few still there when I was and we have spoken in the last couple of weeks and we were waiting until the last game to see who we were playing.

“I sent a little message out to a couple of the lads and it was all in good spirits.”