Danish forward Emil Riis' second goal of the season earned Preston North End all three points against Coventry City
Preston North End heaped further misery on out-of-form Coventry City with a narrow 1-0 Championship win at Deepdale.
Centre forward Emil Riis' 72nd-minute goal was enough to separate the sides and lifts North End to 14th in the Championship table.
Substitute Haji Wright had a goal disallowed for Coventry after the United States international was adjudged to have handled the ball.
Coventry remain out of the relegation zone on goal difference but have now lost on five occasions in their past six games in all competitions.
The hosts threatened after eight minutes when Riis was slipped in but his strike across goal was saved well by the feet of Coventry goalkeeper Oliver Dovin.
Riis was in the thick of the action once more but he was unable to guide a pinpoint cross from stand-in captain Ryan Ledson on target six yards out and Robbie Brady went close soon after.
In a first half full of endeavour, Riis' deflected effort was pushed away by Dovin but the Dane was booked shortly after for diving having gone down softly in the area.
Following an error from Brady, Coventry forward Norman Bassette was unable to find the target from 10 yards out shortly before Riis' decisive goal.
Substitute Sam Greenwood's in-swinging corner fell to Brady who perfectly set up Riis to nod home his second of the season right in front of goal.
It was another frustrating afternoon for the Sky Blues, who had Wright's effort ruled out for handball before North End keeper Freddie Woodman superbly kept out Bobby Thomas' header from a Tatsuhiro Sakamoto cross as the hosts held on to seal an important win.
Preston head coach Paul Heckingbottom told BBC Radio Lancashire:
"Obviously last time out I thought we deserved the win and didn't get it so I'm delighted first and foremost to get the three points.
"First half I thought we were the better team. Their moments came in transitions which we spoke about - they were set up to do that as well but I still think we had the chances to be up at half-time.
"Second half was a little bit different but we got the goal to go in front and then I thought from that moment, the next five minutes as we made a couple of subs, we looked a real threat as the space opened up."
Coventry boss Mark Robins told BBC CWR:
"I think if you take the game in isolation we’ve done very little wrong.
"Our use of the ball was OK from time to time, there wasn’t a great deal in it. We probably cancelled each other out a little bit but we had opportunities to score.
"The goal that was disallowed, I'm going to see the referee about. I want to know why that goal was disallowed. There's talk of it being disallowed for handball. There was no handball, I'm being told."
