Preston 1 Bradford City 2: Yeates the hero as fans praised by Parkinson

The Bantams pinched victory in dramatic fashion, with Yeates’s strike coming just a minute after North End hot-shot Joe Garner had bagged a goal which looked like preserving the hosts’ incredible home record.

Delighted Bantams chief Phil Parkinson, who saw his side ease up to 13th place thanks to a first win in six games, said: “We expected Preston to throw everything at us in the second half, and they did.

“Preston are a very good team and they were protecting a proud home record.

“We had a few good chances ourselves, though, and we could have extended our lead on a number of occasions before Preston got their equaliser.

“They did get their goal, but a moment of sheer quality from Yeatesy has won us the game.

“We put so much effort into the game, and this was possibly our best performance of the season. A draw would have been harsh on us.

“When they scored that goal, the crowd lifted. To then break like we did, you need your quality players to produce big moments in games and Mark has done that for us.

“I’m really pleased overall – it’s a great win for us and we said after Halifax (in the FA Cup) that we wanted to build on that and we certainly have.”

The visitors took the lead in the 26th minute when Rory McArdle’s shot beat goalkeeper Jamie Jones thanks to a slight deflection.

Garner pounced from close range to make it 1-1 and so late in the game that the hosts figured they had secured a share of the spoils.

But it was not to be for Simon Grayson’s men, who saw Yeates curl an exquisite effort past Jones to send the travelling faithful into raptures.

Grayson, whose side have suffered three successive league defeats, said: “Obviously we’re hugely frustrated that we’ve lost our good record of being unbeaten here since December at Deepdale. We made the real schoolboy error of letting them score from within a minute of our equaliser.”

Preston North End: Jones, Clarke, Huntington, King, Buchanan (Laird 66), Browne, Kilkenny, Gallagher (Davies 66), Humphrey (Reid 79), Garner, Robinson. Unused substitutes: Stuckmann, Holmes, Welsh, Ryan.

Bradford City: Pickford, Darby, Davies, McArdle, Meredith, Halliday (Liddle 69), Kennedy, Morais (Sheehan 88), Yeates, Clarke (Hanson 76), Stead. Unused substitutes: Dolan, Knott, Williams, Routis.

Referee: A Haines (Tyne & Wear).

Man of the match: Mark Yeates.