Huddersfield Town: Nottingham Forest rubbed salt in the wound perfectly after controversial play-off final win - View | OneFootball

Harry Toffolo and Lewis O'Brien left Huddersfield Town to join Nottingham Forest in the summer of 2022 after the club's play-off final defeat.

Huddersfield Town and Nottingham Forest are two clubs that have gone in opposite directions since they met in the Championship play-off final in May 2022.

Forest secured promotion back to the Premier League for the first time in 23 years with a 1-0 win over Huddersfield at Wembley, with Levi Colwill's first half own goal sealing victory for Steve Cooper's side, but that does not tell the full story of what was an eventful game.

The Terriers felt they should have had a penalty in the second half when Harry Toffolo was brought down by Jack Colback, but the defender was booked by referee Jon Moss for diving, and VAR supported his on-field decision.

Huddersfield had a second appeal for a spot-kick turned down in the closing stages of the game when Max Lowe challenged Lewis O'Brien in the box, and VAR was not even consulted on this occasion, leaving Town supporters feeling aggrieved.

Despite battling against relegation for much of their time in the top flight, Forest have achieved survival in each of the last two seasons, and they will be looking to progress up the table this campaign under the guidance of Nuno Espirito Santo.

As for Huddersfield, head coach Carlos Corberan left the club just over a month after the play-off final defeat, with the Spaniard later revealing that he did not believe in the board's plan to move forward and mount another promotion push, and after going through five managers in the following two years, they were relegated to League One last season.

Nottingham Forest dealt Huddersfield Town double blow after play-off final victory

It is clear that the Terriers have struggled to recover from the loss, and Forest continued to inflict misery on the West Yorkshire outfit long after the final whistle at Wembley.

Not content with beating Huddersfield to promotion, Forest made a move for two of Town's key players in the summer of 2022, and coincidentally, it was the duo who had been involved in the controversial penalty incidents in the play-off final - Toffolo and O'Brien.

Given the outstanding season the pair had enjoyed in the 2021-22 campaign, the Terriers would surely have expected Toffolo and O'Brien to attract interest from elsewhere after their failure to win promotion, but they would have been incredibly reluctant to lose them to the Reds.

Forest signed Toffolo and O'Brien for a reported joint fee of £10 million, and while Town fans would have been devastated to see them join the club that had caused them play-off heartbreak just weeks earlier, they will be even more frustrated by the way they have both struggled at the City Ground.

Harry Toffolo and Lewis O'Brien have faced struggles since Huddersfield Town exits

O'Brien has made just 17 appearances for the Reds since his arrival two years ago, and after spending time out on loan with DC United and Middlesbrough in recent seasons, he once again made a temporary exit this summer, this time to MLS side LAFC.

Toffolo has at least featured more than O'Brien in a Forest shirt, but while he made 28 appearances in all competitions last season, only 15 of those came from the start in the league, and he looks unlikely to be a regular this time around, with the signing of Alex Moreno on loan from Aston Villa pushing him further down the pecking order.

While Corberan had already resigned before Toffolo and O'Brien's departures were confirmed, the imminent exits of his star duo would surely have played a part in the 41-year-old's decision to leave, as well as the fact that he was unlikely to be given the funds required to replace them with players of a similar quality.

A new era is now underway at Huddersfield following the appointment of Michael Duff, and the Terriers look well-placed to challenge for an immediate return to the Championship this season.