Mark Robins came away from tonight’s match at Deepdale ‘frustrated’ after his side fell to defeat against Preston.
Tyler Walker had given City the lead at the break with a fine finish but a second half turn around from the hosts saw the Sky Blues slip to a 2-1 defeat.
“I’m frustrated because we had done pretty well in the first half and they had not really threatened too much. There was a save from a corner but we didn’t win enough first contacts all game and that came home to roost in the second half.” Robins said.
“We had done pretty well in terms of trying to keep playing under pressure and when we were fouled because there was a lot of niggly fouls that went unpunished, I don’t know if it’s the Matty Godden thing where everyone decides we just fall over, but there were times in the game where they were nailed on free kicks, nailed on fouls, especially on Callum who gets kicked all over the place but it’s not an excuse.”
Robins praised the move that created the goal but believes his side ran out of energy in the second half which allowed the home side to grow into the game.
“At the end of the first half we ended up building into a really good move then for the goal and it was a great finish right on the stroke of half time and we spoke at half time about we needed to do second half and we just seemed to run out of energy.
“They really pushed for the goal, their supporters showed their displeasure in the first half when they were coming off and that sort of galvanized them and gave them a purpose for the second half, obviously they are at home, and they want to win the game.”
On reflection the manager thought he could have made changes sooner.
“They ended up getting on top and I needed to change it earlier, I didn’t, and they got on top in the game and they created a decent opportunity from a corner but in fairness we dealt with that and it was Ian Maatsen’s touch took it out for a corner when. his touch is generally really assured, but we gave them a corner, they got first contact and it skidded off the surface and off the post.
“Then we did what we normally do, we had a bit of a wobble and didn’t keep the ball well enough and that was the reason they started to push and grew in confidence and grew into the game and that was the disappointing thing for me.
“Like I said I have take responsibility for things I don’t do and really I should have acted a little bit quicker because you could see it was building but ultimately if you get it out and be better with the ball you can really hurt them but that didn’t happen tonight.”