Nathan Byrne’s injury-time winner turned the tables on the knockout kings Sheffield United and made it advantage Swindon heading into the second leg of this League One play-off.
Byrne took advantage of the space afforded him on the periphery of United’s penalty area to tease a 20-yard effort beyond the grope of the goalkeeper Mark Howard, who had been a hero an hour earlier when he repelled Ben Gladwin’s penalty. That 27th-minute save preserved United’s lead, given to them by the full-back Kieron Freeman’s second goal for the club. But Sam Ricketts, a player with promotions at three different clubs, powered a headed equaliser just after the interval.
Sheffield United’s defending for that goal and the sucker-punch winner irked their manager, Nigel Clough, but his main ire was reserved for the referee Darren Bond, who waved away appeals for a penalty during their early purple patch when the ball appeared to strike Nathan Thompson’s hand. He also incensed the home crowd with several other decisions, including blowing up for a foul on Thompson before the substitute Matt Done put the ball in the net.
“We had four major decisions go against us in the game. Four things of that magnitude in one game is a bit hard to take. We put our heart and soul into it, we could certainly have defended better for the two goals but when you get three penalty appeals turned down and a goal disallowed that shouldn’t have been, you feel a bit hard done by,” said Clough.
The South Yorkshire club’s bid to overturn their post-season syndrome – each of their seven play-off seasons has ended in failure – began positively, even allowing for Thompson’s controversial blocking of Jamie Murphy’s scoop across the area, as Swindon paid for coughing up possession in the 19th minute.
Chris Basham’s interception on halfway launched an attack that although initially averted, saw Ryan Flynn tee up the unmarked Freeman for an astute first-time finish from 12 yards. However, Swindon squandered the chance to level from the same distance 10 minutes later after Harris allowed Byrne to advance into the box and then compounded the error by hanging out a leg. Gladwin, Swindon’s third penalty taker of the season, went the way of his predecessors Andy Williams and Michael Smith by missing.
United, whose outstanding record of only three defeats in 21 major cup matches under Clough appeared to bode well before this semi-final, lost their captain John Brayford to injury at half-time and their lead six minutes later when the unmarked Ricketts powered home.
Then came the sucker punch that sees the Blades heading to the County Ground, where they lost 5-2 earlier this season, with a deficit as Harris hung off Byrne and watched the ball drift past Howard’s dive.
However, Swindon’s manager Mark Cooper insisted the mission of booking a Wembley place is far from complete despite the tactic of resting players over five winless matches at the end of the regular season - which was ‘nothing mad or scientific, just common sense’- paying off handsomely at Bramall Lane.
“The players in the dressing room are quite calm, there is no hooting, screaming and back-slapping. They know it’s half-time and we were losing at half-time in this game so anything can happen,” Cooper said.
