Frank Lampard never claimed title race was over as Preston hold leaders Coventry

Frank Lampard insisted the title race was never over after his side were frustrated in a 1-1 draw with 10-man Preston to reduce their Sky Bet Championship lead to five points.

After Andrew Hughes’ deflected Jack Rudoni’s shot into his own net, it seemed as if Coventry would bounce back strongly from their 3-0 defeat by Ipswich at the weekend.

But despite that, and the man advantage after Liam Lindsay was sent off for dragging back Haji Wright when he was through on goal, Daniel Jebbison struck late to help Middlesbrough move to within five points of the top.

Sky Blues manager Lampard said: “I am the first one to say that when we were 10 points clear and people don’t go 10 points clear in December and win this league.

“There is a lot to be done and it is important that the players stay level-headed and it is one game in which we played pretty well, and one moment was costly.

“I said to the players it shouldn’t feel like a loss but it does because of the standards and the way that we play.”

Lampard believes his next aim is to keep his side looking at the positives of the result, that saw Wright thwarted multiple times by Daniel Iversen while Victor Torp was also denied brilliantly by the stopper.

“We clearly should have won the game,” said Lampard. “We are all frustrated but we need to keep a level head in the context of the whole season.

“We never felt a threat against a team that have been getting results this season, it is frustrating against 10 men and if we scored the goals we should have done today and it is frustrating in the way we conceded.”

It was a dominant performance by Coventry but their shots were matched by a resilient and tough Preston defence, and a magnificent Iversen.

North End manager Paul Heckingbottom said: “We have been resilient all season, but I felt that when they scored we were the ones that looked more threatening.

“They were going for it in the final couple of minutes, but everyone to a man was really committed to getting the point that we needed.

“The sending-off sort of zoned us in, because we knew what we had to do to win the game.

“I think nothing really changed in principle throughout the game, the principles are the same. We just needed to make a problem in their box and it worked really well for us.

“I felt we were really positives at time, and the changes we made gave us a real lift at times.”

The point helped Preston remain in a healthy position in the league, sitting fourth in the table and two points into the play-off spots.

“This league is going to be crazy this season, it always is but this season more than any is going to be,” added the boss.

“I think today shows that we have gone up a place with a point. A point normally gets you nowhere but today was more than that point.

“We showed what we are really about, the determination and the spirit against a really good side and we got what we deserved.”