Preston North End deprived of win by crowd disruption at Coventry

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Two pitch invaders effectively aided Coventry City in stealing a point from Preston North End leaving the Lilywhites furious and frustrated.

Crowd disorder has gone up 47% this season, with arrests rising from 547 to 802 after fans were fully allowed back in after the pandemic.

The incident occurred in the 89th minute when North End were awarded a penalty after Emil Riis Jakobsen was dragged down by Fankaty Dabo, who was then sent off, meaning both sides were down to 10 men due to Liam Lindsay being sent off five minutes earlier.

A couple of home supporters took to the pitch to cause the disruption and Jamaican international Daniel Johnson was made to wait to take the kick.

Admirably in the circumstances, Johnson converted past Simon Moore in the Coventry goal sending the away fans into raptures.

When it came to the end of the 90 minutes, referee Keith Stroud added on six minutes of time, three were due to the disruption before the penalty.

In the 98th minute, the game was still going, and the Sky Blues had a corner that fell to Fabio Tavares in the area.

The former Rochdale prospect unleashed a wonderful curling effort to beat Daniel Iversen and rescue a point for Mark Robins’ side.

Preston boss Ryan Lowe was very disappointed in the way the situation was treated and questioned the amount of added time.

“It’s very difficult to take when your lads have given you everything and are well worthy of three points, then to be undone by, I don’t know whether it was a wrong decision or the minutes [added].

“There are six minutes up, and we’ve played seven [minutes and] 20 [seconds], so I’m disappointed in that.

“The minutes he put up were through no fault of our own.

“I think it was the crowd obviously running on the pitch, and the referees put the time on for that, but I thought there was only one team that was going to go and win it, and that was us…

“I think the decision in terms of the minutes that’s gone up has stopped us getting three points because I thought we were well worthy of it.”

Trouble at games has started to become the norm, with an invasion of the playing surface becoming more common.

A similar incident occurred in a recent game between Rotherham United and Accrington Stanley, where a Millers’ fan kicked the ball away while Harry Pell waited to take a penalty.

Action needs to be taken before fans’ behaviour takes over and impacts more fixtures.

Preston are now left to wonder what if an incident like this blows any chance of a late promotion charge.

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