Paul Heckingbottom admits Preston were ‘bailed out’ by goalkeeper Daniel Iversen

Paul Heckingbottom praised Daniel Iversen for earning Preston a point in their 0-0 draw with Bristol City in the Championship.

The 28-year-old produced an incredible one-handed point-blank save to deny Anis Mehmeti in stoppage time, maintaining North End’s unbeaten start in the league at Deepdale this season.

On Iversen, the Preston manager said: “He’s been protected really well throughout the season so far. He’s still made big saves but today he bailed us out which is important but that’s what we’ve tried to do with the recruitment.

“The time of that save at the end makes (a big difference). We’re in the 94th minute and there’s no defenders around Mehmeti, you know he’s got in behind and you expect him to score but Dan makes the save. Everyone would have left the stadium defeated.

“If that’s early on in the game, I’m probably feeling a little bit different here and wondering why we didn’t create more or go on to win the game but that is the big, big moment. Points will always be decided in big moments and we’ve been good in those avenues at the minute.”

Emil Riis returned to Deepdale for the first time since leaving the Lancashire outfit but was replaced in the 86th minute after making minimal impact.

“He’s their player,” Heckingbottom said. “I’m not really bothered now to be honest. We had to be wary of their front three. They are a threat. Bristol City have 80 odd shots before today’s game and (the front three) have had 50 of them.

“What we’ve done well is we’ve limited their shots in open play. (Scott) Twine has his free-kicks and we know he’s deadly from those positions but we’ve dealt with that well. I’m probably more satisfied thinking about last season where we’ve been dominant in those draws.”

Bristol City boss Gerhard Struber refused to be downbeat despite not taking all three points.

“I am not frustrated,” he said. “I am happy with the performance. We know this is the expectation against a team that has started the season very well and has a really good energy. The boys executed the match plan on a top level today.

“The overload stress for them (we caused) was really good from the boys. It’s not so easy to deal with the long balls and how they normally create their chances. I would say the boys were really good, really compact. I don’t think it needs a second opinion to say we should have won the game.”

The result means that City have only lost one of their opening seven league matches, keeping firmly in the play-off mix with another point on the board and Struber was keen to keep a positive head.

“(I was pleased with) how quick we were in the brain and creating the action,” he added. “Sometimes, we can speak about the result but for me it’s performance.

“I think we expect to win. We are a professional football team. We want to win the game but sometimes football isn’t fair. We have to manage our mind in a good way. We play again midweek and we can take many good things away from this game.”