Sheffield United will fancy their chances of reaching Wembley after Brian Howard's strike secured a 1-1 draw at Preston in the first leg of their Championship play-off semi-final.

The Blades midfielder struck in clinical fashion just seconds into the second half to cancel out Sean St Ledger's 21st-minute opener.

A fast and furious encounter produced few genuine goalscoring opportunities but United would have won had substitute Craig Beattie not spurned two golden opportunities in the second half.

Monday's decisive second leg at Bramall Lane will not be for the faint-hearted but Kevin Blackwell's men more than matched their opponents physically and dominated the second period at Deepdale.

United - who failed to sell out their ticket allocation - threatened in the fifth minute when Darius Henderson crossed low from the left flank.

The ball reached Jamie Ward and he produced a delightful piece of skill to engineer the space to strike a low left-foot shot at Andy Lonergan.

The Preston goalkeeper made the first of several fine saves and the hosts threatened moments later when Neil Mellor fired a fierce shot goalwards but Howard threw himself in front of the ball to avert the danger.

Deepdale erupted in the 21st minute when St Ledger grabbed his sixth goal of the season.

The highly-rated centre-back, whose winning goal against QPR booked North End's play-off berth on a dramatic final day of the season, rifled home from close range following a deep free-kick from Billy Jones.

He was stood in an offside position when the ball came to him but it had been headed into his path by Blades midfielder Nick Montgomery so the goal rightly stood.

Yet Blackwell's men fashioned an encouraging response and almost drew level in the 28th minute when Stephen Quinn slipped in behind the Preston defence and forced a fine save from Lonergan at his near post.

The Blades continued to probe but almost fell further behind in the 35th minute when Jon Parkin headed against a post from Ross Wallace's corner.

However, the equaliser came within seconds of the restart after Lonergan smothered a shot from Henderson.

The ball was swiftly recycled by Ward and his right-wing cross was powerfully dispatched by Howard's fine volley from 10 yards.

United appeared to lose Henderson to injury in the 55th minute but replacement Beattie wasted a golden opportunity to make his mark with a dreadful shot over the crossbar.

Three players were booked within the space of 10 second-half minutes as tensions mounted but Preston were grateful to Lonergan again with five minutes remaining when he parried Howard's long piledriver before saving Beattie's effort from close range.

Teams:

Preston Lonergan, Jones, Mawene, St. Ledger, Nolan, Sedgwick, McKenna, Carter (Nicholson 70), Wallace, Parkin, Mellor (Brown 77).

Subs Not Used: Neal, Chilvers, Elliott.

Booked: Carter.

Goals: St. Ledger 21.

Sheff Utd Kenny, Walker, Morgan, Kilgallon, Naughton, Montgomery, Howard, Stephen Quinn, Halford, Henderson (Beattie 54), Ward (Lupoli 74).

Subs Not Used: Bennett, Cotterill, Bromby.

Booked: Kilgallon, Montgomery, Lupoli.

Goals: Howard 46.

Att: 19,840

Ref: Andre Marriner (W Midlands).