Coventry made it three consecutive wins with a 2-1 victory over Preston.

Jack Rudoni and Bobby Thomas scored in the first half for the Sky Blues as Frank Lampard's side continued their pursuit of the Sky Bet Championship play-offs.

Will Keane halved the deficit to give Coventry something to think about in the closing stages, but the hosts ended their 17-year wait for a league victory over Preston, spanning 22 matches.

Coventry impressed from the off, with Tatsuhiro Sakamoto forcing Freddie Woodman into a save within the first 10 seconds following Ellis Simms' knock down.

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Simms cut a rejuvenated figure following his brace in Coventry's 2-1 victory at Sheffield Wednesday last weekend, and the former Everton striker could have opened the scoring when he dragged wide after he was played in by Thomas.

The powerful frontman then cut inside and saw his effort blocked by Stefan Thordarson.

The loose ball was latched upon by Ephron Mason-Clark, who stood up an inviting cross for Rudoni to head in his fourth of the season.

It was a deserved lead for Lampard's men, who had turned the screw in the lead-up to the goal including Sakamoto's inviting cross which Mason-Clark headed wide.

The hosts doubled their lead just six minutes later when Woodman failed to deal with Thomas' header, the effort hitting the North End keeper on the shoulder and looping into the net.

Paul Heckingbottom made a triple change at the break to try and switch the momentum, introducing Liam Lindsay, Brad Potts and Emil Riis, all of whom had been dropped to the bench following the 1-1 draw with Millwall in midweek.

Coventry went hunting in search of a third to kill the game off, and Woodman atoned for his earlier error when he sprawled to his right to keep out Sakamoto's half volley from the edge of the area.

The former Newcastle stopper then thwarted the impressive Simms, who got a shot off with his back to goal only for Woodman to tip it over the crossbar.

Simms kicked thin air with the goal gaping, before his follow-up was kept out by Woodman following Jamie Paterson's cut-back.

Rudoni could also have wrapped up the points for Coventry seconds later, but Woodman was at his very best once again to deny him.

Preston halved the deficit with eight minutes to go with their first shot on target through Keane, who bundled Potts' cross over the line, but Coventry held out to move to within a point of the top six.

The managers

Coventry's Frank Lampard:

"Performance-wise I would say it's one of the best. Although I think the scoreline probably doesn't quite reflect that, but we all know in the stadium that it probably should have been three or four by the time they scored to give us a difficult 10 minutes.

"We changed the shape today and you could feel the extra attacking player on the pitch and the energy in the team, and the quality.

"We played the first half in their half pretty much, doing all the things we worked on and talked about in the week so it was good. We were playing a difficult team, to be fair, and I was concerned coming into this game because Preston are a difficult team to play against.

"They put balls in the channels and turn you around a lot and sometimes go man to man but they couldn't press us today because of how well we played, so there are lots of positives."

Preston's Paul Heckingbottom:

"There were too many not at the level we've been playing today which made it difficult. It just looked on my eye, a game too far for us. I'd love to have that game back again."

"We were second best for large parts, I could feel it coming five minutes before their first goal and you're thinking we need to change something here.

"Before that it was a pretty even game in terms of our threat and their threat, our problem was when we got in behind them the final pass was missing, which meant we didn't get the opportunities, didn't get the goal.

"But from the goal onwards I felt we were second best for large portions, I thought if we would have got something out the game it would have just been the spirit and the character of the players.

"We've been trying to make changes and manage the group to keep the energy because it's a big part of how we play and that's why this next week we've got a free week, so we need to use it really well."

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