COVENTRY City threw away a half-time lead to lose 2-1 against Preston North End at Deepdale despite Tyler Walker scoring his second goal in as many games.
Walker fired City ahead in the final minute of the first-half only for second-half goals from Patrick Bauer and Emil Riis Jakobsen to secure victory for the Lilywhites.
Despite the defeat, the Sky Blues remain in fourth place in the Sky Bet Championship table – just three points outside of the automatic promotion places.
Preston started the brighter of the two teams when a corner from the right was met by the head of Jordan Storey who saw his effort pushed away by City keeper Simon Moore diving low down to his right.
North End came forward again soon after when the ball was worked to Josh Earl down the left-hand side of the penalty area who cut inside of his man before curling a shot a couple of yards over the bar.
And City would make Preston pay for those missed opportunities when Walker broke the deadlock on the stroke of half-time.
Fankaty Dabo and Callum O’Hare exchange passes in the right channel before the latter found Walker in the box who took a touch and then stumbled slightly before lashing an effort high into the net.
The home side responded with an equaliser on 61 minutes when Ben Whiteman’s cross from the right was superbly turned into the net by the head of Bauer from 15-yards out with the aid of the post.
That goal turned the tide of the game in Preston’s favour and they came close to taking the lead when Jakobsen’s floated cross from the right found Alan Browne at the back post only for the ball to go inches wide of the post.
And the Lilywhites would eventually find a winning goal after the Sky Blues switched off at a set-piece.
A quick free-kick allowed Browne to roll Jakobsen in down the left channel before he cut inside of Dom Hyam and hammered an effort past Moore at his near post to seal the points on 69 minutes.
The defeat means City have still never won a league match at Deepdale and have failed to beat Preston in their last 16 meetings in the league.
Sku Blues boss Mark Robins admitted he was frustrated to lose the game and felt he should have turned to his substitutes bench sooner in order to try and halt Preston’s momentum.
Robins said: “I’m frustrated because we had done pretty well in the first-half and they hadn’t really threatened too much.
“At the end of the first half we ended up building a really good move and then for the goal – it was a great finish right on the stroke of half time.
“We spoke at half time about what we needed to do in the second half and we just seemed to run out of energy.
“They really pushed for the goal and ended up getting on top and I needed to change it earlier, I didn’t, and they got on top in the game.
“Then we did what we normally do, we had a bit of a wobble and didn’t keep the ball well enough.
“That was the reason they started to push and grew in confidence and that was the disappointing thing for me.”
Coventry are next in action against Derby County at the Coventry Building Society Arena on Saturday, October 23 with kick-off at 3pm.
