Mark Robins saw “nervousness” and “fear” in some of his Coventry City players as they failed to break their winless league run at Deepdale.

The Sky Blues took an unlikely lead against the run of play with Haji Wright scoring the first of two goals in their 22nd attempt to break their bogey at Preston North End, but then conceded twice themselves in the space of a few minutes in a dismal first half to trail 2-1 at the break. The first was a free hit from Duane Holmes in the City box and the second an Alan Browne penalty after a foul by Kyle McFadzean.

More desperate defending saw Milutin Osmajic extend the home side’s lead amid a much improved second half showing from City before Wright bagged his second to set up a frantic finish with the visitors trying to get a late leveller in more than six minutes of added time.

“We couldn’t really get out and they had a lot of the ball, and their intent was clear. Ours wasn’t. We turned the ball over too many times and then took the lead, probably against the run of play. But having got that cushion and a starting point, then within two minutes we were 2-1 down and it seems ridiculous decisions – the second one was off-side. The first movement was off-side and then he (the referee) has given a penalty off the back of it, but two wrongs don’t make a right.

“Thankfully Fadz didn’t get sent off because he could easily have been shown a red card for denying a goal scoring opportunity.”

He added: “The second half, it was chalk and cheese really. It was a proverbial game of two halves and we showed the intent that our team generally shows, and has done for years. And we have to hold onto that because the second half performance was pretty good apart from the goal we conceded.

“The three goals that we conceded were soft, very poor and that’s something that has to improve. But again, we have broken that run of not scoring in the last three and ended up with two goals from Haji, which is good for him, good for his con

“Ellis showed some really good signs, some good power and pace when he went on. We just made some poor decisions on the ball sometimes. We tried to play the ball through, which is good, but when it’s 20 yards they have more time to react to it and step across and close the space off when the ball was clearly on outside, and you can build the play from there. So that was the frustration.

“We got back to 3-2 and we were thinking, can we have that last little bit to get an equaliser. We threw the ball in at the end to the penalty area and the reactions weren’t there. We tried to bring the ball down instead of hitting it. You have to get a shot on target however you do it, and it just didn’t happen. But certainly, the second half is something we have got to hold onto.”

In conclusion, he said: “I just said to them, they have listened to The Last Post being played before the game. That’s real. Ultimately what we’re doing is playing sport and there shouldn’t be any fear what-so-ever. But I see some fear there.”