Preston North End 2-2 Bristol City: Emil Riis Jakobsen rescues Preston with injury-time goal
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Bristol City players look dejected as they concede another injury-time goal to be denied a win
Emil Riis Jakobsen's last-minute strike rescued a point for Preston North End as they came back to draw 2-2 with Bristol City.
Chris Martin put the Robins deservedly ahead after 12 minutes, while Antoine Semenyo, Callum O'Dowda and Andreas Weimann all saw chances go begging as the visitors dominated.
Preston looked renewed after the break and Riis Jakobsen pulled them level just before the hour mark.
Semenyo appeared to have given the Robins the win with a goal with nine minutes to go but Riis Jakobsen got his second deep into injury time to deny Bristol City all three points.
You have to go all the way back to February 2011 to find the last time Bristol City won at Deepdale with Preston's ground proving to be a difficult destination for over a decade.
After losing against Luton Town in midweek, Bristol City started brightly and took less than quarter of an hour to find the net. Weimann set up Martin, who made a diagonal run before striking the ball beyond Daniel Iverson into the far corner for his eighth of the season.
City continued to have all the chances and looked dangerous in attack as the first-half traffic all went one-way as they pushed for a second.
Semenyo saw a volley go over the bar, Martin played in O'Dowda but his shot, on his weaker left foot, went over the bar and Weimann scuffed a shot past the post that only needed good contact to go in.
Ryan Lowe made two changes at half-time and gradually Preston clawed themselves back into the match.
Six minutes later, and the first time the hosts had a clear-cut chance, Riis Jakobsen made it count as a save from Max O'Leary deflected straight into his path and he scored from close range.
Buoyed by their goal, Preston looked increasingly threatening as City rued missed first-half opportunities to put the game to bed.
With less than 10 minutes to go, Semeneyo appeared to have secured Bristol City the winner, scoring with their first real chance of the half. Han-Noah Massengo stepped over the ball to release the 22-year-old inside the box and he smashed the ball in close to the near post.
Bristol City have a nasty habit, however, of not being able to see matches out this season and again they were caught out with seconds on the clock deep into injury time.
After breaking on the counter-attack, Riis Jakobsen volleyed his second goal in the 95th minute to deny Bristol City all three points and extend their wait for a win at Preston.
Preston North End manger Ryan Lowe:
"I won't accept the first-half performance from the players and the lads know that. But despite that, I was really pleased with the reaction of the players in the second half. We freshened it up after the break and I'm really pleased with the reaction. We weren't quite at it first half and we were disappointed with large parts of it.
"[Cameron] Archer is going to be a star for us, the fans have taken to him already and he'll get goals for us. It was a great tackle to start the move for the second goal and we've gone from one end to the other for the equaliser and that is pleasing."
Bristol City manager Nigel Pearson told BBC Radio Bristol:
"I thought we played very well. We've conceded some late goals this season - we had chances to run the ball into the corners and kill the game but we didn't. But the referee has got to get that right. How he can't give a free-kick is absolutely mind-blowing. It's a disappointing end to what was a very good performance and I thought we showed some very good qualities today.
"It's a good job we're scoring goals because we're conceding too many. But I thought actually we looked quite assured today at the back. We should really see the game out but I can't really fault the application and desire to win the game but we should have been more ruthless with the chances we had. Those things together make it a bit of a head-scratcher, but I thought there were loads of positives."
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