Haji Wright, Jack Rudoni and Victor Torp all scored twice as Coventry marked a momentous day in their history with a 7-1 demolition of an abject QPR.
Earlier on Saturday, the club announced they had purchased the Coventry Building Society Arena for the first time since it opened 20 years ago.
The Sky Blues then completed a day none of their fans will ever forget as they ruthlessly exploited QPR’s generosity in defence to make it back-to-back wins in the Sky Bet Championship in stunning fashion.
There was already a celebratory atmosphere among the Coventry fans before kick-off, but what followed was surely beyond even their wildest expectations.
They had reason to cheer after 12 minutes when Torp moved the ball out right to Milan van Ewijk, and the wing-back’s low ball into the area was steered in by Wright.
It was all Coventry in the first quarter of the game, although when they doubled their lead in the 23rd minute they had the visitors to thank.
A sloppy pass towards his own area by Kieran Morgan was intercepted by Rudoni who laid the ball off for Brandon Thomas-Asante to power the ball high into the net.
It really was too easy for the Sky Blues who had their third after 35 minutes when Rudoni did well to control Matt Grimes’ pass but had so much time to get his shot away, which was deflected into the top corner.
It was 4-0 two minutes later when Rudoni’s pass sent Thomas-Asante charging in behind the porous QPR defence and he beat his man before setting up Wright to pass in his second of the afternoon.
QPR’s first-half misery was complete two minutes before the break when Rudoni received the ball in space from Thomas-Asante and, with no QPR player thinking of closing him down, passed the ball into the bottom corner from just outside the area.
Coventry continued to pile on the pressure after the restart and Ephron Mason-Clark laid the ball off for Torp to almost nonchalantly place his shot into the far corner in the 47th minute.
Wright almost completed his hat-trick when his shot across goal was kept out by hopelessly unprotected QPR goalkeeper Joe Walsh.
Torp then became the third home player to make it a double when he unleashed a fantastic 30-yard effort into the top corner to make it 7-0 in the 66th minute – unquestionably the best of the lot.
QPR’s supporters – those that stayed anyway – finally had something to cheer in the first minute of stoppage time when Richard Kone scored from close range after Liam Morrison had nodded across Karamoko Dembele’s free-kick.
The managers
Coventry’s Frank Lampard:
“Probably the first 45 minutes here was the best we’ve played since I’ve been here, there’s no point in denying that.
“It had every facet of our game that we talk about, that we work on, everything on the mentality side of it, how at it we were – you could feel the energy on the pitch.
“I’m pleased because we as staff have spoken to the players a lot in these opening weeks about what we demand, the standards we want to bring every week consistently, and today we showed it.
“It was an outstanding performance, topped off by the quality at the top end of the pitch.
“I think there was a massive positive feeling for everybody this morning.
“To hear the news and understand what that means for the club is great and I’m delighted for Doug (King), I’m delighted for the club and fans, and that felt good.”
QPR’s Julien Stephan:
“I think they shoot eight times on the target and they scored seven times, so I have never seen that in my career.
“But we have to just deal with the situation now – it’s finished, it’s over and we can’t change anything.
“It’s very hard to explain (the performance) and I don’t think it’s the best moment to explain and analyse the situation of the game.
“But this is a moment to say that I want to apologise to our fans for the result and for the performance.
“It was an unacceptable performance and I am the first one responsible because I am the manager and this is my responsibility.
“I just want to say to them that we will react very quickly and will see another QPR team next week, against Charlton.
“I think a derby is the best moment to react and show another thing on the pitch next week.”
