Preston North End 2 Bristol City 2

Two goals in the first 13 minutes of the second half from debutants Paul Hartley and David Clarkson looked to have given Bristol City an opening Championship win.

Hartley's penalty after Nicky Maynard was brought down, and a breakaway strike from Clarkson were enough after City had endured a desperately torrid opening 45 minutes.

But second half strikes from Neil Mellor and a Callum Davidson penalty in the fifth minute of added time made it a point apiece.

Bristol City included five new boys in their starting line-up but it was Preston who fashioned the first chance when a snap volley from outside the box by Mellor forced a flying save from Dean Gerken.

Mellor was the architect of the next chance when he teed up Paul Parry who forced another good parry from Gerken. The ball then broke to Parry again and his low angled effort was blocked by Liam Fontaine.

From the corner Sean St Ledger headed over from pointblank range before Danny Haynes had a shot blocked by Youl Mawene at the other end.

Mellor continued to threaten and his cross almost found Parkin but Lewin Nyatanga, another debutant, did just enough to snuff out the danger.

Then from Ross Wallace's free kick on the stroke of halftime an almighty scramble saw Louis Carey clear off the line from Parkin before Gerken dived on the ball.

And in stoppage time Mawene volleyed over after City failed to clear a Wallace corner.

Mawene's miss was to prove even more costly just after the break when Mellor lost possession inside his own half and the ball ran loose to Maynard.

The former Crewe man burst into the box and was brought down by a combination of Mawene and St Ledger. Hartley stepped up to convert the penalty.

And ten minutes later it was 2-0 when Carey won possession with a fine sliding tackle inside his own half and Marvin Elliott was able to release Haynes down the right.

The striker's diagonal run across field led to him setting up Clarkson to ram a low shot under Andy Lonergan.

Two minutes later it was Maynard who got in down the right with only Lonergan to beat but his swerving effort curled just wide.

The pace of City's frontmen was proving too much for the home defence. Haynes was the next to get in down the left but Bradley Orr declined to shoot when the ball was squared to him, although even then Mawene almost sliced into his own net.

Preston pulled one back with nine minutes to go when Mellor half-volleyed past Gerken from the edge of the box.

But City could have restored their two goal lead when Maynard got in again but his shot was deflected onto the roof of the net.

Then Preston almost equalised when Richard Chaplow burst through midfield and set up Parry, who forced another one-handed stop from Gerken.

And in four minutes of stoppage time Gerken made a superb save to deny a Parry volley but from the corner Carey was adjudged to have fouled a Preston attacker.

Davidson stepped up to score with the final kick of the game to send City home fuming.

Preston North End (4-4-2): Lonergan; Jones, Mawene, St Ledger, Davidson; Parry, Shumulikoski (Nicholson 66), Chaplow; Wallace; Mellor (Brown 66), Parkin. Subs not used: Chilvers, Henderson, Nolan, Elliott, Sedgwick.

Bristol City (3-4-1-2): Gerken; Carey, Fontaine, Nyatanga; Orr, Hartley (Williams 75), Elliott, McAllister; Clarkson (Skuse 75); Maynard, Haynes (Sproule 81). Subs not used: Johnson, Akinde, Wilson, Basso.