The factors which could decide play-offs tie as Nottingham Forest approach laid out

It’s crunch time for Nottingham Forest as they head to Sheffield United for their play-off semi-final first leg on Saturday.

With the regular campaign put to bed with a 1-1 draw at Hull City at the weekend, Steve Cooper’s side turn their attention to trying to navigate a way through the end-of-season mini-tournament. The Blades stand in their way of a trip to Wembley and potential promotion to the Premier League.

Ahead of the clash at Bramall Lane, Reds reporter Sarah Clapson answered fans’ questions in a live Q&A on our Forest Facebook page. Here’s how it panned out.

Forest will definitely go to Bramall Lane looking to get a win, because that’s the approach Steve Cooper takes for every game. He doesn’t go into matches playing for a draw. He’ll want to win.

But a draw from the first leg would certainly be a very good result, because it’s not going to be an easy tie, by any means. Sheffield United are going to be really, really tough over two legs.

Just like the City Ground will be for the second leg, Bramall Lane will be rocking on Saturday. So Forest will have to deal with that; try to frustrate the Blades fans and then make home advantage count next Tuesday.

Forest should take confidence from the league game in Sheffield a couple of months ago. They did well that night, and there was disappointment that they only came away with a point - even though that needed a last-minute goal from Ryan Yates. They’ve also picked up some excellent results on the road this season, so they’ve shown they can do it.

United will be boosted by their win over Fulham at the weekend. But just like you can’t read too much into Forest’s draw at Hull, I’m not sure how much you can read into that one, either. Fulham were already on the beach,