Carlisle have home advantage in the second leg of the League One clash – to be played at Brunton Park on Thursday – but Ward will implore his side to assume the initiative by taken a lead away from Yorkshire this evening.

The Cumbrian club have constructed a modest away record this season, showing six wins from 23 matches, and their last eight league fixtures have yielded only a solitary victory over Yeovil Town.

Brunton Park, in contrast, is the scene of the strongest home record in League One, but Ward is unwilling to rely too heavily on the stadium's aura pulling Carlisle through to the play-off final at Wembley.

Ward said: "It would be folly of me to say 'let's be careful' when the players are thinking 'we can go and win this'.

"They'll be very open games and you've got to focus on your own attacking prowess.

"We can't go to Leeds for 90 minutes and hope they don't score. We'll push forward and see if we can find a goal."

The last meeting between Leeds and Carlisle at Elland Road on April 12 produced five goals, with Gary McAllister's team earning a 3-2 victory through two strikes from Dougie Freedman.

Ward's players will be asked to cope with a mammoth crowd of around 38,000 tonight, but he is hoping that the club's recent visit to Leeds will provide ample preparation for the first leg of the semi-final.

"We've very much got the picture of Elland Road - Leeds United, the history of the club and the dressing rooms," he said. "Everything will be reasonably familiar to us."

Carlisle right-back David Raven serves the final match of a three-game ban tonight, and 14-goal striker Joe Garner is absent with a knee injury.