A HURT and bewildered Richard Naylor last night warned that Coventry City could feel the backlash of Town's embarrassing defeat at Reading on Sunday.While the 2-0 result was not a disgrace, the manner in which Town played was well below what Blues fans, and players, expect and the squad will be going all out to put things right against the Sky Blues at Portman Road tonight.

By Derek Davis

A HURT and bewildered Richard Naylor last night warned that Coventry City could feel the backlash of Town's embarrassing defeat at Reading on Sunday.

While the 2-0 result was not a disgrace, the manner in which Town played was well below what Blues fans, and players, expect and the squad will be going all out to put things right against the Sky Blues at Portman Road tonight.

Naylor, Town's longest-serving player, is determined to make Sunday's loss a distant memory and feels the best way to do that is to turn on the style and get back to winning ways.

Naylor said: “Hopefully, Coventry will feel the backlash. That is the best way to react. You can't feel sorry for yourself. We got beat and we have to take it on the chin.

“All we can do now is put on a decent performance in front of our home fans and we will all be up for it and looking to do our best.

“We don't want to stew on bad performances and bad results for too long, so the sooner you can get a decent performance and result under you belt the better and the sooner it is forgotten.

“We have an ideal chance to put things right. It will be difficult, because there was a lot wrong but we will be trying.”

Coventry could be ideal opposition so soon after an in-form Reading. The Blues have not lost to City this century in nine meeting, winning seven, and the last loss was 10 years ago.

But Micky Adams' side took a 4-1 drubbing at home on Saturday from Crystal Palace and will also be smarting, so Naylor knows Town will have to be on top of their game and get back to doing what they do best.

He said: “You always know what to expect with a Micky Adams side, they will work for each other and make it difficult for ourselves.

“It won't be easy, by any stretch, but we have confidence in our ability and faith in the things we do and look to turn a corner.

“It is a case of getting back to basic and doing things the Ipswich way. On Sunday, we didn't create any chances and didn't stay with any runners defensively, so we were all over the place and we have to put that right.”

The loss at Reading was unfortunate for Naylor, who was making his 250th league appearance, 239 of those for Town, as he scored an own goal in the defeat.

He admits that the players let everyone down on Sunday with their below par display and refused to blame the 3-5-2 formation deployed at the start.

He said: “We had too many players having an off day and we can't afford to do that.

“We are not that good at the best of times that we can go to the top sides like Reading and win - we all need to be at our best. On Sunday we were nowhere near our best.

“Sometimes systems work, and other times they don't, but it is down to players and we had too many having an off day.

“When you have more than half your team nowhere near their best, then it doesn't matter if it is 4-4-2 or 3-5-2 or whatever, then it is not going to work.”