Coventry City match reaction from CoventryLive as Frank Lampard gives his assessment of today’s game at Loftus Road
18:06, 31 Jan 2026Updated 18:16, 31 Jan 2026
Coventry City head coach Frank Lampard
Frank Lampard admitted that his Coventry City players didn’t deal with the messy parts of the game well enough, in particular at the back as they slipped to their second away defeat this week.
The Sky Blues grabbed the lead against QPR through a smart header from Josh Eccles but two poorly defended goals in the space of seven minutes turned the tide in the home side’s favour at Loftus Road.
The defeat leaves City winless on the road in their last seven matches and they are now level on points with Middlesbrough at the top of the table, but remain in front on goal difference.
“It was a difficult game on a difficult pitch,” said Lampard, giving his assessment of the 2-1 defeat.
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“There was not much in the game and we got ourselves in front which made it feel disappointing to lose the game, clearly. But we didn’t deal with the messy parts of the game well enough, specifically leading to the goals; the second balls and balls getting behind us and not defending them well enough. And you can get punished for that, and we did, effectively, so obviously disappointed with that.”
It might have been a different story after Coventry came out in the second half full of confidence, got their goal and looked more likely to get another.
“Yeah I felt that, probably at 1-0,” agreed the head coach. “Games are going to be scrappy on that pitch but they dealt with it a bit better than us. You have to deal with it, what’s in front of you but it was hard to get any sort of zip around the ball and have control, but with speed because of the nature of how the ball was running.
“But yeah, we made some little tweaks at half time. I felt we were a bit too safe in the first half. They were not really high pressing but we were coming out and making passes without hurting them so we got Josh higher up the pitch and yeah, we looked, not more dangerous because it wasn’t a game like that.
“It was transitions for them that hurt us and when we felt we had the game at 1-0 and then we had the ball and we were moving it pretty well, lapses and moments of our own culpability, if we’re honest about that, turned the tide of the game and the feeling of the game, and obviously we know the rest.”
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