Callum O’Hare hopes the Sky Blues can come back “stronger” from their defeat to Bournemouth when they take on Brentford in the Sky Bet Championship on Saturday afternoon.
The midfielder feels City have made a good start to the season, taking four points from their opening four league matches, but believes they have a point to prove after suffering defeat in their last outing against Bournemouth.
City will be without summer signing Gus Hamer at the Brentford Community Stadium, following his dismissal against the Cherries, but O’Hare believes the Sky Blues have plenty of players ready to step in.
O’Hare said: “We all feel that we’ve started well, we had a bit of a blip against Bournemouth, but they’re a top team and we’re looking to bounce back and come back stronger.
“We’ve definitely got a point to prove, we didn’t really play at our best against Bournemouth, but we still had a few chances, we need to go to Brentford and do better.
“It’s another big game, they probably feel like they should be in the Premier League, but we’ve got to go there and give it are all and try and get the result that we need.
“Gus will be a big miss, he’s a top player, but we’ve got a big squad here and most of the team are top players so anyone can step in and do a job for us.”
The 22-year-old believes the Sky Blues have brought their attacking style of play into the Championship, but admits they may still need to adapt to the higher tempo in the second tier.
“We played good attacking football in League One and we’re looking to bring that into the Championship straight away and I think we’ve done that.
“I think the tempo is just that little bit higher in the Championship and if the opposition get a chance they’re more than likely to score it.
“It’s weird without the fans, we want them back in, for me personally I feel more relaxed as I can concentrate, it makes things a little bit easier if things aren’t going our way and you hear the fans chanting, it gives you a boost, it’s tough but we’ve got to get through it.”
O’Hare also revealed that is was an easy decision to return to the Sky Blues, despite interest from elsewhere, and praised manager Mark Robins for his role in making the move permanent.
“I had a bit of interest, but I always knew what I wanted to do after the end of the season, it was a great season, I loved it here and it was an easy decision for me.
“I just want to play football and improve as a player, the coaching staff here are all unbelievable and the manager was ringing me telling me that he wants me to be here, which was massive and I knew I had the chance to play.”