Frank Lampard challenges Coventry to respond after latest setback

Coventry boss Frank Lampard admitted his stuttering team’s confidence has taken a hit after a 2-1 defeat at QPR left them clinging onto top spot in the Championship.

The Sky Blues’ sizeable lead has been cut, with in-form Middlesbrough now level on points with them after four consecutive wins.

Coventry are now just five points clear of third-placed Hull City, who have a game in hand.

And Lampard conceded that confidence has become an issue after four defeats in their past seven league matches.

“It has to be, because confidence in football is a thing,” said Lampard.

“Up until the middle of December we were a very confident team, winning games, and it (losing) affects everybody, whether people want to admit that or not.

“But I know this group, I know what they’ve shown this season. I was the first one to say it (the lead) could be gone in a three-game week, and it took a month.

“So it’s very clear now. It’s in front of the players. We have two home games coming up, and the only way to go through any lack of confidence – if there is one – is to work and fight your way out of it.

“We must, absolutely, believe in ourselves now and believe the challenge is the games that are ahead of us and the potential is there to do something very special.”

Josh Eccles gave Coventry an early lead but Rangers responded in the second half with Richard Kone’s equaliser and Nicolas Madsen’s winner.

Madsen was outstanding, crossing for Kone to finish from close range and then firing the loose ball into the roof of the net after keeper Carl Rushworth had parried Harvey Vale’s low cross. The visitors’ defending in the build-up to both goals was poor.

“It was a difficult game on a difficult pitch. It was always going to be scrappy on that pitch and they dealt with it better than us,” said Lampard.

“Not much in the game and then we get ourselves in front. It makes it feel disappointing to lose the game, clearly.

“We didn’t deal with the messy parts of the game well enough. You can get punished for that, and we did.”

QPR head coach Julien Stephan felt the result underlined his team’s progress since they were hammered 7-1 by Coventry in August.

“We knew before the game that we’ve had a lot of progress since August,” said the Frenchman.

“For me this game showed the ambition and the character of this group. We played with fire, with desire and ambition.

“The players did a great performance today. It was a great performance in terms of quality and what they showed on the pitch offensively and defensively.

“It was also a great performance mentally – the character they showed when we conceded a goal.

“They played with desire and ambition to create danger offensively and had strong defensive organisation as well.

“If I had to sum up this game it was after we equalised, and Nico Madsen ran to get the ball and put it down in the middle immediately – not to be happy to score and to draw, but to want to give us the opportunity to win this game.

“That summed up very well the character and personality of the players.”