Bristol City boss Gary Johnson still has plenty of surprises up his sleeve ahead of the second leg of their Coca-Cola Championship play-off semi-final against Crystal Palace.

Set-piece boffin Johnson looked on as his side executed a perfect free-kick routine which culminated in Louis Carey thumping City ahead at Selhurst Park on Saturday.

David Noble played the ball to Nick Carle, who in turn fed Carey to curl the ball past Julian Speroni for his first goal of the season.

The slick move made hours of practice on the training ground worthwhile as City secured a 2-1 victory to move to within touching distance of Wembley and a shot at the Barclays Premier League.

"Me and my staff think them up. Sad, aren't we?" said Johnson.

"We have names for them all and we call that one the weasel. Michael McIndoe shouted out 'weasel' and all the players got into position.

"We won't be able to use it on Tuesday, though, because Neil Warnock will have it sorted out by then.

"We work hard on our set-plays. We do a lot of physical work but also a lot of mental work - which is basically me saying 'get on the end of it or else'."

Ben Watson looked to have pegged City back when he converted an 87th-minute penalty, but Noble gave the visitors what could prove a priceless advantage with a stunning 30-yard strike in stoppage time.

The performance was a far cry from the 2-0 defeat City suffered at Selhurst in January, after which Johnson felt his side had been out-muscled by the hosts.

"We were very committed and that showed not only in our set-plays but in our game as a whole. And you have to be committed when you come to Selhurst Park and play a Neil Warnock team," added Johnson.

"Good players and managers learn from defeats. What we didn't do that day was compete, and here we competed from the off.

"We knew it would have an edge to it. I said to a couple of my lads that they got beaten up in the last away game and that upset them. It was controlled aggression.

"I'm not celebrating. I'm just pleased we've come out of the away leg with a good performance and go into the home leg with everything to play for."

Palace manager Warnock was less than impressed with City's celebrations on the final whistle, which could yet come back to haunt them in the return leg.

"I think you could see they are already at Wembley," he said.

"It's a two-legged game. Yes they've got a major advantage, they are 2-1 up and we've got one or two injuries - but I think the celebrations should be kept until you are through because football has a nasty habit sometimes."

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