A delighted Mark Robins hailed his Coventry side after they came from a goal down to beat QPR 3-2 and gain their first points back in the Championship.
QPR took the lead four minutes before half-time through a Lyndon Dykes penalty but Coventry hit straight back with a Matty Godden header three minutes later.
Second-half goals from Callum O’Hare and Kyle McFadzean were enough to give the home side the points, despite a Yoann Barbet response having drawn the Hoops level at 2-2 before McFadzean headed in the winner.
Robins said after the game: “We took a bit of time to get going. We were just getting used to the speed, maybe that was a surprise.
“QPR are expansive and we didn’t cope with it very well and kept giving the ball back to them.
“The penalty was harsh, I thought, and the set play they scored from could have been avoided.
“We looked a little bit shell-shocked in the first half, Championship football is quicker than League One and there’s not many in our team who have experienced that – and these are a good team, a difficult side to play against.
“The only bit of football we played in the first half, we scored from – a great time to score, just going into half-time, great timing, gives you something to hold onto.
“We did really well in the second half, weren’t chasing, it was set nicely and we were playing counter-attacking football.
“Callum O’Hare’s goal was outstanding and we managed to make plenty of chances from set pieces.
“But we were putting them under pressure and forcing mistakes. That will give us belief and you can build from that, the confidence is there.
“A really good evening’s football, I’m delighted.”
QPR manager Mark Warburton was disappointed that his side did not make more of their first-half dominance.
He said: “Coventry are a good team, they will cause sides a lot of problems this year because promoted teams know how to play and win together.
“We were very good in the first half, but we kept letting them in and we were punished for it and it buoyed them when we didn’t get the rewards.
“To let them get back in it is really poor after playing so well in the first half.
“They dropped deeper and we didn’t match the intensity of the first 15 minutes of the second half.
“But then we got equal, with the second goal we felt we should have got something from the game then.”
