Coventry City manager, Frank Lampard, has said that his team is going through a tough time after seeing their lead at the top of the Championship narrowed in recent weeks.
The Sky Blues lost 2-1 to Queens Park Rangers, but they remained at the top of the league, tying on points with second-place Middlesbrough.
Lampard’s team was 10 points ahead when they beat Boro in November, but since then, Coventry has not won any of their last seven away matches, and that lead has disappeared.
“What we need to do right now is stay positive and focus on the next one. We’re in a tough situation, and it’s really clear that things are difficult right now, but we’re at the top of the league,” Lampard told BBC Radio.
“We know the gap is gone now, so it’s a race from here on, and we have to pick ourselves up very quickly.”
Lampard’s team took the lead with a header from Josh Eccles. Then, goals from Richard Kone and Nicolas Madsen helped the hosts secure a memorable win.
This comes after they had been beaten 7-1 by Coventry earlier this season.
The former Chelsea midfielder and manager added, “We didn’t handle the messy parts of the game well. We lost a few second balls, got into some duels, and ended up getting punished for it.
“It’s a great goal, a fantastic header from Josh, and a nice ball from Rudy. The feeling was that on this pitch against a tough opponent, it was going to be a hard match, and before that, the game wasn’t really decided yet, so scoring that goal to take the lead is really good and makes us look a bit stronger.
“But again, when there’s a mess in the game and the second balls and balls are dropping and we don’t handle them, they end up going behind us and we get late on some things, and then we get punished.”