Sheffield United vs Nottingham Forest result: Blades keep up pressure on Leeds with crunch win

Sheffield United 2-0 Nottingham Forest: The race for a top two place will now go until at least the penultimate weekend of the season

The Blades kept up the pressure on Leeds in the race for promotion (Action Images)

It had appeared increasingly fashionable to write-off their hopes, but you do so at your peril. Sheffield United are very much alive and kicking in the Championship promotion race after a victory which shifted the pressure squarely back on to Leeds United.

Mark Duffy's stunning executed strike six minutes into the second half put the hosts en route to ensuring the intriguing battle for a top two place will go until at least the penultimate weekend of the season - and given the twists and turns witnessed at the top of the second tier this term, probably beyond.

Chris Wilder's side had squandering four points from winning positions in their previous two games, but they were not to be guilty of such benevolence against a largely lacklustre Nottingham Forest side, whose aimless display at a sun-drenched Bramall Lane reflected their position of mid-table comfort, with little to play for in the closing weeks of the campaign.

A fourth consecutive defeat represents Forest's worst run for more than two years, and leaves manager Martin O'Neill with much to ponder and no doubt plenty to attempt to overhaul during the summer. While it may be a low-key end to the campaign at the City Ground, the opposite remains true for the hosts in their three remaining regular season games, starting with the Easter Monday visit to Hull.

Their trip to the KCOM Stadium will be the third of four consecutive matches where they play before Marcelo Bielsa's side, their rivals for second place behind leaders Norwich, and the Yorkshire neighbours' on-going scrap for supremacy can now only be decided next weekend at the very earliest.

Benalouane was dismissed (Getty Images)

The outcome here rarely looked in doubt once Duffy had found the top corner with clinical accuracy from 15 yards when Forest failed to deal with one of several telling deliveries into the area from midfielder Oliver Norwood. Given that the visitors had just lost defender Yohan Benalouane to a straight red card for a lumbering challenge on David McGoldrick as the forward bore down on goal - although it was debatable whether the Tunisian centre-back was the last man - their task in attempting to restore parity always looked beyond them.

Showing four changes, three of them enforced due to hamstrung duo Billy Sharp and Chris Basham in addition to the one-match suspension served by defender John Egan, United were aware that a defeat would have put Daniel Farke's leaders in a position to seal promotion at home to Sheffield Wednesday, but for now at least, the Canaries' coronation will have to wait.

Duffy scored the opener (Action Images)

Costel Pantilimon reacted sharply to keep out close range efforts from McGoldrick and Gary Madine as the hosts sought a nerve-soothing second given the way they had surrendered the lead recently against Birmingham and Millwall. Despite dominating, they had to wait until five minutes before the end to finally kill the game off, Enda Stevens confidently beating Pantilimon from a narrow angle at the end of a flowing 60-yard counter-attack.

Forest's best openings came in a first half where Jack Colback ensured an early start to his summer holidays when the on-loan Newcastle midfielder earned his 15th yellow card, and with it a season-ending three game ban, for a woeful dive in the area under minimum pressure from George Baldock.

Claudio Yacob went close from long range, as did Daryl Murphy with an angled drive across the face of goal, leading to an understandable rise in tension among home supporters. That dissipated soon after the re-start as Benalouane's early departure was quickly followed by Duffy's sixth goal of the campaign, Stevens' unflustered late finish heralding an out-pouring of emotion from the stands at the latest significant shift in pursuit of a place back in the Premier League.