Cameron Brannagan praised by Oxford boss Gary Rowett

Oxford head coach Gary Rowett praised captain Cameron Brannagan after his “amazing” free-kick goal earned his side a first Championship point in a 2-2 draw at home to Coventry.

Haji Wright put the Sky Blues ahead after 11 minutes, only for Will Lankshear to level eight minutes later.

Victor Torp restored Coventry’s lead with a free-kick in the 37th minute, but the U’s fought back superbly in the second half to earn a draw.

Rowett said: “Whenever the chips have been down for this club, and certainly I’ve seen it in my short time here, Cam’s one of the ones to try and get hold of the game and make things happen on his own.

“Sometimes that can be to his detriment, because he ends up out of position, but his will to want to win is clearly there, and also the quality.

“His free-kick was amazing – just before the whistle goes he moves it six inches to his right to just open up that space, and it was a fabulous, fabulous strike.

“He’s done that so many times.

“It was an enjoyable game to watch – I was quite pleased with large parts of the performance.

“There were large parts, especially in the first half when I had my hands over my eyes, and one moment at the end too.

“But we showed good character and played some good football in the first half – we just allowed Coventry into and around the box a bit too easily for my liking and were a bit passive.

“Maybe that was a bit of nerves after the way we’ve started the season and the number of goals we’ve conceded recently.

“But we responded really well to the goals and the second half to me was a completely different performance where we’ve probably done enough to win the game.

“Although they had a chance right at the end, we were the team pushing to go and get the winner.”

Rowett has been hit with a spate of injuries, and he added: “It’s been incredibly frustrating. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced anything even close to it and we had another two or three added to it overnight.

“Brian De Keersmaecker is catching up with minutes and looked a bit fatigued near the end, but he showed some lovely touches, and Nic Prelec has come into the team and done fantastically well.”

Coventry boss Frank Lampard said: “In the first half we were brilliant – second half was different. Fair play to them, they opened the game up and we couldn’t wrestle it back and get that control again.

“I loved everything about us first half, playing through the lines and creating so many opportunities.

“But you always get that feeling at stadiums like this, that if you don’t make it count with the chances you have and go two or three goals up, it can come back and hurt you.

“But then we had a massive chance at the end when Haji (Wright) hit the bar. It’s not a dig at Haji because he’s scored so many goals for us already this season. It happens.

“But after our play in the first half, playing through the lines and consistently creating, creating, creating, I’m very disappointed to drop two points.

“The game could have been done at half-time, we gave them a bit of a lifeline by the game still being alive for them, and they took that.

“We needed to try and get the ball back a bit more and be better connected at the bottom of the pitch, which we were in the first half, but you just have to give them credit, everything felt a bit sharper from them second half.

“I’ve played the game a long time, I understand that, even in the mentality of knowing you have dominated the game for so long and you feel it turn, it’s not always easy to grab back.

“It’s one to analyse a bit in that sense.

“But I’ve never been disappointed this season by my players’ desire to try and win games, we have played some great stuff and had a pretty good start.

“Two wins and two draws from our first four league games, I’m quite pleased with.”