Sheffield United v Blackburn Rovers: Paul Heckingbottom makes feelings clear about referee

Referee Matt Donohue far from endeared himself to home fans with a series of baffling decisions which helped Rovers to break up the play and prevent United from getting into a rhythm.

Every challenge, it seemed, was a foul and some even brought about yellow cards for the most innocuous of tackles.

All that meant that when he had to make two very big calls – which he did get right, in sending off Charlie Goode for a strong challenge on Reda Khadra and givng a penalty for John Egan’s hand ball – the crowd were even more incensed.

United boss Paul Heckingbottom certainly felt that way, acknowledging that the red card and penalty decisions were correct – Wes Foderingham’s spot kick save got Egan out of jail – but not much else was.

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“I don’t have any problems with the red card,” said the Blades boss. “I thought to begin with he had got the ball but then looking at it again, he didn’t. I didn’t have a problem with the penalty either. The referee got those two things right although, to be fair, I thought he got a lot of other things wrong.”

He added: “It’s the best way to win, for lots of reasons. Everyone will tell you who’s been involved in games like this.

“For me, it reinforces everything we’ve been trying to do. We’ve been trying to get this place bouncing. We’ve been trying to reignite that connection between the fans and the players.

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“I think the ref helped us today. I think the sending-off helped us and the penalty save helped us.”

United eventually won the match thanks to substitute Ben Davies’ injury time winner, which took United back into the top six.