They say you cannot win a two-legged tie after just 90 minutes but Sheffield United took a giant step towards the Wembley playoff final showpiece after surging towards a 3-0 victory over 10-man Bristol City. For the Blades, who also had an early goal questionably chalked off, their task was made easier after the City defender Rob Dickie was sent off on the verge of half-time, allowing Harrison Burrows to strike from the penalty spot and give Chris Wilder’s side a leg-up. In the second half the substitutes Andre Brooks and Callum O’Hare clinched victory.
This time the billowing red smoke on the pitch came from the delirious United away end, where the injured homegrown Blades midfielder Ollie Arblaster was thought to be enjoying himself. Suddenly City’s pitch invasion only last weekend felt an awful long time ago. For all of the talk of the gulf between these teams, the 22 points which separated third-placed United and sixth-placed City, ultimately the sending-off transformed this match. Now City’s only hopes of reaching the final hinge on an unthinkable – and sizeable – victory at Bramall Lane.
