Leeds were fired by Preston triumphalism, says Blackwell

"Job done". Two words, written on a poster and hung in the away dressing-room, fuelled the fiery display that swept Leeds United into what their manager, Kevin Blackwell, is billing as "the £40m match" - the play-off final for a place in the Premiership in Cardiff on 21 May.

They referred to a comment attributed to Billy Davies, the Preston North End manager, after Friday's 1-1 draw at Elland Road in the first leg of their semi-final. His Leeds counterpart seized on the remark, as well as the celebrations of Davies and his team, to foster an impression within the Leeds camp of disrespectful and triumphalist opponents.

Blackwell explained the psychological ploy. "Preston were jumping up and down, thinking they were in the final," he said. "We went to Deepdale to prove them wrong." A highly charged performance, allied to a counter-attacking style and a below-par showing by Preston, vindicated the tactic, even if Davies was arguably taken out of context.

Some 33,000 tickets for Leeds' first appearance in the Millennium Stadium go on sale today. Should Blackwell's men prevail, there will be a supreme irony in the club being reborn in the city where Peter Ridsdale now plies his trade.

First, though, Leeds aim to challenge the suspensions of Stephen Crainey and Richard Cresswell after their dismissals on Monday. Crainey admitted he had been "stupid" to kick the ball away for his first caution. "The second one [for bringing down David Nugent] was harsh," he said. "I've asked the referee [Mike Thorpe] to look at it and maybe rescind it."

Cresswell told a similar story. "I couldn't tell you what my first booking was for. I asked the referee to have another look at it, and he said he would," he said. "But the lads were fantastic. I don't think Preston thought we could do it." Rob Hulse produced an impressive example of lone front-running, heading the first goal and creating Frazer Richardson's winner.

Preston and the admirable Davies must start again, following a seventh play-off failure in as many attempts. The Leeds end gloated: "We're going to Manchester, you're going to Colchester". However, Blackwell will know better than anyone that it is not yet time to say "job done".

Elsewhere, the Newcastle full-back Stephen Carr is looking forward to the start of next season after his red card in Sunday's victory over Chelsea was rescinded. The referee, Mike Riley, dismissed the 29-year-old for a 75th-minute challenge on Lassana Diarra, but the Football Association's disciplinary committee yesterday overturned the decision, sparing him a four-game ban at the start of the new campaign.

Bolton have confirmed that Matt Jansen, Khalilou Fadiga and Oscar Perez will join Jay-Jay Okocha and Bruno N'Gotty in leaving the club this summer. The manager, Sam Allardyce, is seeking a new deal with Ivan Campo, while the Fiorentina midfielder Hidetoshi Nakata could return after the end of his loan spell.