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Your support makes all the difference.A bitter Championship play-off tie ended with Leeds one match away from a Premiership return last night, five years to the evening since they lost at Valencia in an altogether more salubrious semi-final.
A Rob Hulse header and Frazer Richardson's tap-in in the space of five minutes decided the second leg following a 1-1 draw at Elland Road, leaving Billy Davies' Preston to ponder a seventh failure out of seven attempts in the end-of-season festival of frayed nerves.
After a power failure delayed the start of the second half, Leeds sparked into life to settle the contest around the hour mark. However, they had to play the last quarter without Stephen Crainey and had Richard Cresswell dismissed in stoppage time. The pair, each booked twice, will miss the final against Watford or Crystal Palace in Cardiff on 21 May.
Defeat came at a much crueller price for one Preston player. Brett Ormerod, once a Leeds loan player, sustained a broken leg in a heavy challenge by Jonathan Douglas after six minutes. The tackle, unpunished by any card, set the tone for an acrimonious contest in which Leeds incurred eight yellow cards and Preston two.
Kevin Blackwell, whose side had lost at Preston a week earlier and won only one in 11 matches, hailed their "tremendous tenacity". The Leeds manager said: "Gary Kelly, who captained us here, was the only player I had 18 months ago. We've built a club that is one game from the Premier League, and that's a magnificent achievement." However, Blackwell was strident in his criticism of the referee, Mike Thorpe.
"This is a £40m match and I don't understand why we should have a rabbit in the car headlights in charge," he said. "The standard was up and down. No one knew what was going on. Hefty challenges weren't getting booked early on. Later you could get a yellow card for anything."
On half-time the ground was plunged into darkness as a power cut swept across the area. The "Preston Plumber", Sir Tom Finney, was present, but finding an electrician proved more problematic. The game was running 25 minutes late when it resumed.
The lights soon went out on Preston. Increasingly, a set-piece looked the most likely source of a goal. So it proved in the 56th minute, Hulse losing his marker to bury a corner kick by Kelly. Three minutes later, Hulse set up Leeds' second goal with a strong run and shot that Preston's goalkeeper, Carlo Nash, could only parry. Richardson was on hand at the far post to prod home the loose ball.
Yet Leeds were reduced to 10 men when Crainey was banished for tripping David Nugent.
Preston thought they had halved the deficit when Tye Mears headed in after 80 minutes, only for a linesman to indicate that Paul McKenna's corner kick had swung out of play.
Even the stupidity of the former Preston player Cresswell, who kicked the ball away minutes after his first caution, could not take the gloss off delirious Leeds celebrations at the end.
Preston North End (4-3-3): Nash; Mears, Davis, Mawene, Alexander; O'Neil, McKenna, Stewart (Agyemang, h-t); Nugent, Dichio, Ormerod (Whaley, 12). Substitutes not used: Ward (gk), Sedgwick, Wilson.
Leeds United (4-5-1): Sullivan; Kelly, Gregan, Kilgallon, Crainey; Richardson, Miller, Derry, Douglas, Lewis (Stone, 87) ; Hulse (Cresswell, 79). Substitutes not used: Bakke, Healy, Blake.
Referee: M Thorpe (Suffolk).
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