Preston 1 Coventry 3

COVENTRY manager Gordon Strachan was laughing about a poke in the eye for one of his players but Preston felt the result was a poke in the eye for them, writes DANY ROBSON.

The Sky Blues' Moroccon midfielder Yousef Chippo was injured as the Premiership side celebrated their second goal in the Worthington Cup second round first leg at Deepdale.

"Most teams have goal celebration routines but we aren't used to scoring.

"We just stood there stunned and then poked each other in the eye," joked the Coventry boss.

But North End manager David Moyes wasn't laughing as his side have an uphill task at Highfield Road.

Coventry, who haven't visited Deepdale in the cup for 34 years, looked like they would run the show after going ahead in just four minutes.

Chippo's cross found Peruvian international Ysrael Zuniga, making his first start this season, and he headed passed North End keeper David Lucas, who was well enough to start after suffering chest injuries on Saturday against Stockport.

On the stroke of half-time, Murdock only half cleared a City corner and Marcus Hall fired low into Lucas' bottom right hand corner. Then followed the celebrations where Chippo received an eye injury which eventually forced him to be substituted.

But it was game-on immediately after the restart when Paul Williams was judged to have hauled down Paul McKenna in the area and Graham Alexander scored the spot kick, his second goal of the season.

But Coventry hit back, Appleton tackled skipper Moustapha Hadji from the back, the referee pointed to the spot and Gavin Strachan converted with just five minutes left.