Preston North End's Freddie Woodman defends Robbie Brady after error gifted Bristol City a goal in 2-1 defeat

Brady’s short backpass was intercepted by Mark Sykes who rounded Woodman to slot the ball into an empty net to score the opening goal of the game after six minutes.

Sam Bell scored the Robins’ second goal three minutes into first half stoppage time, with Ched Evans getting a goal back for North End in the second half.

North End were condemned to their fifth defeat on the spin at home but after a mistake from Brady sent Bristol City on their way, Woodman came to the defence of the experienced Republic of Ireland international.

He said: “I thought that between the first five minutes and the last five minutes of the first half, we were the better team. It was just two lapses of concentration maybe, two moments, two goals, and it sort of kills us. I thought we came out for the second half and were obviously the better team and dominated the game but at that stage it's probably too late.

"You can't always account for mistakes, mistakes happen, it's football. If you watch the majority of goals things happen like that. It's about how you react to it. I think as a team we need to react in the right way and make sure we limit those.

"It's not on Robbie, I thought Robbie played well afterwards. That's the type of character he is, he dusts himself off and goes again. It's one of those things.

"If you concede early on and late on it's a recipe for disaster really, it's not ideal. Especially here at home, we haven't won here for a whole so it's not the best way to start.

"I thought after that we dominated and on another day we could have revived something and tried to take a point.”

North End’s poor home form continues, with only two other sides in the league doing worse on home soil.

The last time Preston won in the league at Deepdale was all the way back on November 1, a 1-0 win over Swansea City.

But what must North End do differently?

“Win. We have to try and win and give these fans something to shout about,” Woodman said. "I thought we had a right go in the second half and the fans got behind us and it's disappointing for us that we couldn't give that to them in the first half.

"We know this place is behind us, you saw the support against Tottenham, they're always behind us but we need to give them performances here like we do when we're away from home.

"The belief is there, the belief never goes. We're hurting, this group, we're always hurting and it's never nice to lose games.

"But the belief is there, we know the quality is there. We've brought in some good players in the window and we'll go again. We'll be back in working hard and we'll go into the next game trying to win that one.”