Nottingham Forest 1-2 Sheffield United (agg 3-3): Forest win Championship playoff on penalties – live!

Football is a parochial, traditional, protectionist affair, so it won’t surprise you to hear it said that this should be a Premier League fixture. Two grand old clubs with glorious histories, who hail from big cities and boast serious followings, need to be in the top flight for the gratification of those who watch other teams in that division. Makes sense, right?

Except football is also a precise, meritocratic, competitive affair, so it also won’t surprise you to hear it said that no team has any business playing in any competition unless they earn the right so to do on the pitch. However much I one might fancy visiting the various hostelries around their grounds.

Forest were relegated in 1999, and since then haven’t got all that close to a return, losing three playoff semis – most recently, in 2011. It’s been a long schlep.

Blades, on the other hand, have sunk lower – they spent six years in League 1 between 2011 and 2019 and are yet to win promotion through the playoffs in eight attempts – but managed two straight seasons in “this league” between 2019 and 2021. As such, they’ll feel confident they can make it again, because there are several players in their squad who were part of that surprise Chris Wilder-inspired renaissance.

They’ll have to go some, though, because Forest are on a buzz. After losing their first four games and taking one point from their first seven, Steve Cooper replaced Chris Hughton as manager with transformative effect. Though he won five of his first six, it’s in the run-in that everything really changed, a young, dynamic, ridiculously likeable side taking 29 points out of the last 36 available. If they play well tonight, it’ll take something serious to stop them reaching Wembley, to meet Huddersfield a week on Sunday.

United, though, cannot be discounted. In Iliman Ndiaye and Morgan Gibbs-White they have two pacy, brave and skilful strikers, and if Sander Berge has a good day behind them, they’ll have chances to retrieve their 2-1 first-leg deficit. This is going to be intense.

Kick-off: 7.45pm BST