Chris Cohen believes the international break provides City with a valuable opportunity to find greater consistency in their performances as the Imps look to build on the encouraging signs shown during the opening months of the Sky Bet Championship campaign.
The Imps showed positive moments either side of half-time at MATRADE Loftus Road, but Cohen admitted his side had not sustained those levels for long enough as they suffered a 2-1 defeat.
He said: “For the back end of the first half, the last 15 minutes, we got into a bit of rhythm and flow. We worked out how to be aggressive against them, had a couple of nice counter-attacks and scored a really good goal.
“We came out and started the second half with a nice bit of rhythm to us, but then the game got away from us. We went into survival mode, which worked brilliantly well for us last year, but there have been too many times throughout the first 15 games where survival just isn’t enough.
“We have to keep the aggression in our game. We have to try and punch back and find a way to implement what we want to be as an attacking force more often and more consistently throughout matches.”
Cohen believes the international break provides an opportunity for him and fellow head coach Tom Shaw to assess the opening months of the campaign and work towards producing more complete performances.
He said: “There are positives to take, but we need consistency in terms of the time we spend playing at that level. It can’t just be 10 minutes here, 10 minutes there or half an hour here. We need to create as much of a 90-minute performance as we can. It has to be a performance that the supporters can walk away being proud of.
“None of us have come to this level to survive. We have to find more opportunities and more ways to thrive.”
Despite the disappointment of recent results, Cohen remains confident in his players’ ability to compete at Championship level and pointed to performances earlier in the season as evidence of what they can achieve.
He said: “We knew what we were coming into. This level is relentless, but when we reach our levels, we know we’re a match for anyone in this league.
“We’ve had games this season where supporters have walked away proud of the performance even though we haven’t won. Middlesbrough is the prime example.
“We have to find a way to reach those levels more consistently. If we do that, we know we’ll win enough games of football to reach the targets we all have.”
Cohen also paid tribute to the travelling City supporters, many of whom were visiting Loftus Road for the first time.
He added: “We’re always in awe of our supporters. We appreciate them so much, the volume of people who travel and spend their hard-earned money following us.
“That’s why it hurts us so much when we don’t give them the performances and experiences they deserve.
“We’ve helped give our supporters days they’ll remember for the rest of their lives and we want to keep doing that.
“We deserve to be in this league. We got 103 points last year and we know that when we hit our levels, we can compete with anyone.
“Our supporters are incredible. They’re knowledgeable, understanding and passionate, and we’ll do everything we can to continue this amazing journey we’re on.”