Sheffield United: Bristol City boss Lee Johnson has ‘nothing but praise’ for Blades despite Andreas Weimann’s hat-trick giving Robins all three points at Bramall Lane

City dented United’s automatic promotion push as Andreas Weimann’s hat-trick sealed a 3-2 victory at Bramall Lane, despite United twice leading through Billy Sharp and then Scott Hogan.

The victory keeps City’s play-off hopes alive and, coupled with Leeds’ home win over Millwall, saw United slip to third with seven games of the regular season left.

And Johnson said: “I’ve got nothing but praise for Sheffield United and the biggest compliment we could have paid them is that we changed our shape, although we didn’t change our philosophy.

“It became a bit of cat and mouse with tactical changes; we changed, then they changed, then we changed… but I was delighted with the players. They showed character, commitment, but also quality.”

Johnson reserved special praise for hat-trick hero Weimann… but not just for his goals.

“He scored three great ones,” Johnson added, “but I thought the best part of his game was the workrate.

“I wouldn’t want to play against him because he’s relentless in his running and he’s delighted with his first senior hat-trick in our colours, all goals with real quality.”