BRENNAN GIVES COOPER’S

BRENNAN JOHNSON helped take Forest a huge step closer to ending their 23-year Premier League exile.

But boss Steve Cooper felt their win should have been more emphatic.

Forest forward Johnson got the goal that put them in control of their Championship play-off semi-final, yet could easily have left Bramall Lane with a hat-trick.

After Jack Colback had given Cooper’s side a 10th-minute lead, Johnson rolled one shot wide and had a close-range header pushed away by keeper Wes Foderingham as the visitors dominated the first half.

And as Sheffield United tried to respond after the break, the Wales international steered in a cool second after Joe Lolley had pounced on an error by defender John Egan to set up the chance.

But Johnson was then denied by a brilliant Egan block as he had a chance to make it three – and Sander Berge’s late header kept the Blades alive going into Tuesday’s second leg at the City Ground.

Cooper (right) said: “It should have been a clean sheet, and it could have been more goals, but this is the play-offs. It must have been great to watch. We knew we wanted to attack. It’s our way. We take risks.

“I loved our first-half performance. We were dominant and I was really happy with our mentality and approach.

“Whether you like it or not, these games are different – so to come to a big stadium like this, against a good team, with good players, and do what we did tells you our mentality is in a good place.

“We created enough chances to come away with more than a one-goal advantage but this is football. It’s disappointing to concede at the end but that’s the tension of the play-offs, isn’t it?”

It looked as if the tension had got to both teams in a physical encounter that