Coventry City 0-2 Preston North End
- Published
Two goals in the space of five second-half minutes gave Preston a valuable victory at Coventry.
Captain Tom Clarke gave Simon Grayson's side the lead in the 62nd minute when he got on the end of a free-kick to side-foot home coolly.
It was 2-0 soon after when Seb Hines fouled Joe Garner in the box and the Preston striker converted the penalty.
It could have been worse for the Sky Blues, with Ryan Haynes twice called upon to make last-ditch blocks.
After successive victories on their homecoming at the start of September, the Sky Blues' third straight defeat was their first since returning to the Ricoh Arena.
Sky Blues manager Steven Pressley told BBC Coventry & Warwickshire:
"Three straight losses is not good enough. That type of performance isn't good enough for Coventry City at home. It's a performance I take responsibility for because I'm the manager.
"We need to show more belief in ourselves, and that's up to me to sort out. Once we lost the goal it sucked the confidence out of us."
"We looked lacking in confidence and didn't play with the fluency I continue to talk about. We have to show unity and turn this corner. We have to turn that into a positive performance very quickly."