Positive Approach Deserved More - Cotterill

Sunday, April 12th 2015

Steve Cotterill believes Bristol City’s positive approach was deserving of more than the single point it produced at Deepdale.

The league leaders might have been forgiven for adopting more cautious tactics with hosts Preston North End breathing down their necks in the Sky Bet League One title race.

But instead Cotterill’s men took the game to their closest challengers, ultimately sharing the spoils after Aaron Wilbraham cancelled out Jermaine Beckford’s opener in the space of four second-half minutes.

“I think we deserved to win the game in the end,” the manager told Bristol City Player.

“Their goalkeeper has ended up getting man of the match which tells a bit of a tale. He’s made three fantastic saves today – one from Kieran Agard and two from Aaron Wilbraham.

“He was excellent and I certainly think he was important in Preston getting a result because otherwise, with our chances, we would’ve won the game.

“When you’re in my shoes you have to think about the worst case scenario. Even though I didn’t say it to the players, it was important we didn’t get beaten today.

“We wanted to win. We’ve set up and tried to win every game we’ve been involved in this season.

“Sometimes you can come unstuck with that by being really cavalier and trying to take the game forward, but we’ve played like that all season so we’re not going to start changing now.

“We’re really disappointed with how we’ve done for the goal (conceded) because we know we could’ve done better.

“Nevertheless we bounced back and scored a good goal – Aaron has scored his 20th of the season, which is fantastic for him and we’re all delighted for him.

“It was a really good game at a fantastic stadium with a great crowd – home and away. Good luck to Preston for the end of the season.”