Preston North End and Bristol City shared six goals in a thriller at Deepdale in atrocious conditions.
Heavy rain fell for large parts of the game, but the two sides still put on a show as North End came from 2-0 and 3-2 down to take a point.
Taylor Moore and Andreas Weimann gave the Robins a two goal lead inside 37 minutes, but a penalty apiece for Paul Gallagher and Daniel Johnson either side of half-time drew the Lilywhites level.
Lee Johnson’s men went back in front on the hour mark, but Patrick Bauer earned the home side a point with his first goal for the club, powering a header home from Joe Rafferty’s left-wing cross.
The visitors started brightly as former North Ender and his side’s skipper Josh Brownhill put over a corner that Antonie Semenyo fired goalwards, Declan Rudd. And shortly after the PNE No.1 was again needed to make a save from Tommy Rowe’s header, getting on the end of a cross from his fellow wing back on the right, Jack Hunt.
The first good move of the game for the home side came on the 15 minute mark as a great move down the left by Tom Barkhuizen, saw him get free and run towards box, finding Josh Harrop who in turn laid it on for Sean Maguire, who fired from 15 yards, but into the side-netting off the outside of the post.
City went in front on 29 minutes as a corner from the left by Rowe saw Moore fire home from close range, with Rudd angered by what he felt was a foul from the central defender.
And the stopper was even more upset for the second, which came eight minutes later, as Moore seemed to push Johnson into Rudd, putting him on the floor, with Weimann heading home Brownhill’s corner.
But PNE were back in the game in first half stoppage time, Daniel Johnson was fouled by Han-Noah Massengo and Paul Gallagher drilled home the resulting penalty under Daniel Bentley to reduce the deficit going into the interval.
And within six minutes of the restart they found themselves level as another penalty was awarded by referee Andy Davies, as Barkhuizen’s cross was blocked by both arms of defender Ashley Williams.
This time Johnson stepped up, sending Bentley the wrong way and coolly stroking the ball into the bottom right-hand corner of the Alan Kelly Town End goal.
On the hour mark the Robins went back in front again, however, and it came from another set piece. This time Brownhill’s free kick was headed on target by Williams, Rudd making the save, but another defender Nathan Baker fired home from ten yards out.
The goals kept flowing and with 20 minutes left North End were back level. A corner on the left was played short by Johnson to Rafferty, who opened up space and delivered a deep high ball to PNE’s German centre half at the back post and Bauer powered home his first goal for the club.
The manager put on Alan Browne, David Nugent - for his first run out in the league – and Josh Ginnelly to try and force a winner and in the closing stages the game opened up with the best chance coming as Barkhuizen laid the ball for Browne to strike a vicious shot on target, but Baker threw his body at it and forced it behind for the corner as both teams had to settle with a point to extend their respective unbeaten runs.
PNE line-up: Rudd, Fisher, Rafferty, Pearson, Bauer, Davies, Harrop (Nugent, 62), Gallagher (Browne, 62), Barkhuizen, Johnson, Maguire (Ginnelly, 80). Subs not used: Ripley, Storey, Ledson, Potts.
Bristol City line-up: Bentley, Hunt, Baker, Brownhill (c), Weimann, Semenyo (Diedhiou, 57), Moore (Watkins, 57), Rowe, Williams, Messengo, Palmer (O’Dowda, 62). Subs not used: Maenpaa, Wright, Eliasson, Pereira.
Attendance: 12,005 (735 Bristol City fans)
Referee: Mr A Davies