Preston North End 1-0 Bristol City: Daniel Johnson penalty gives Lilywhites victory

Daniel Johnson’s first-half penalty was enough for Preston North End to beat Bristol City and give the Robins their third straight Championship loss.

Former Celtic and Swansea striker Sinclair also saw a deflected low shot and a well-tied volley by Daniel Bentley as Preston earned his lead at halftime.

Dean Holden’s visitors were a different team after the halftime performance of Antoine Semenyo, who, along with midfielder Callum O’Dowda, forced several excellent saves from Declan Rudd as Preston battled for victory.

Bristol City remains ninth, two points from the play-offs, after failing to score for the fourth time in five games, while Preston is now four points behind them in 13th.

Referee Geoff Eltringham paused to award the decisive penalty as he appeared to wait and see if there would be an advantage for Preston, who went on to hit the crossbar through Tom Barkhuizen before he got the game back.

Robins defender Moore touched the ball in the challenge, but he also caught Sinclair, and Johnson sent Bentley the wrong way from spot after a choppy run.

City were particularly dangerous on their right when they chased after a draw in the second half, Jack Hunt crossed twice for Semenyo to get close before O’Dowda saw a header dumped by the impressive Rudd.

Preston was perhaps lucky not to be left with 10 men when Darnell Fisher escaped a second yellow card after 66 minutes for a late challenge on livewire Semenyo, with the full-back retired minutes later.

But Alex Neil’s team, which have conceded 30 goals, the championship-high, this season, have kept a clean sheet consecutively at Deepdale for the first time since December 2017 and have not lost any of their last 15 league games with the Robins.

The Lilywhites could have made the final stages more comfortable, but understudy Emil Riis Jakobsen saw a low effort from Bentley.