Sky Blues boss Mark Robins praised the efforts of late substitute Fabio Tavares as his fantastic finish salvaged a late point at the Coventry Building Society Arena.
Fabio Tavares’ first senior goal in Sky Blue ensured that City earned a 1-1 draw in injury time, cancelling out Daniel Johnson’s 89th minute goal for Preston.
“Fabio’s first touch was away from him, which was a fantastic touch, and the finish was just sublime,” Robins highlighted.
“I think to draw the game under the circumstances felt like a real relief.
“We started off brightly in the first half and controlled it, mostly. They’re a good team, we’ve always struggled against them and that is a point more we’ve got against them than in previous games that we’ve played.
“We play well in the first half, and coming into the second half you know that things are starting to change. They’ve got legs in the team, that’s where they build, they don’t concede too many goals, and they’re good from set plays.
“They’re decent at this level, and you saw that when we got it wrong in terms of having a free kick.”
Following this afternoon’s tightly contested Championship fixture, Robins also reflected on the quality of the opposition, and how he looked to counteract their efforts.
“They blocked most things today, but you know that it’s going to be a really tight game.
“There will be one moment in the game that possibly might do it, but 0-0 was potentially written all over it.
“Once the sending off occurred, we had a free kick, we didn’t deal with that very well and they break against us with pace and we didn’t deal very well with that at all.
"They get a penalty, convert it, and from that moment on we tried to get into a position where we could create something to try and get back into the game.
“I was trying to go, right okay, what have we got to try and get something back and have an attacking threat, and it was about trying to get Fabio [Tavares] into the action in a game that was very physical and difficult to find some space.
“Viktor [Gyokeres], who is a powerful player, couldn't find his space, couldn't get it away; the whole thing was difficult.
“That’s what they are, they’re really aggressive in their play, and we had a really good first half, in the second half we started to tire a little bit.”
Next up for the Sky Blues is an away trip to Swansea City for more SkyBet Championship action next Saturday.