Coventry beat Derby in eight-goal thriller

Haji Wright (right) was among Coventry's goalscorers

Coventry City scored three times in the space of seven second-half minutes to come from behind and beat Derby County in a Championship thriller at Pride Park.

After Brandon Thomas-Asante made it 3-3, Ephron Mason-Clark headed in after being set up by Milan van Ewijk and Victor Torp then fired home.

Bobby Thomas' fortuitous early opener had put the visitors ahead and a rare Callum Elder goal quickly hauled Derby level, before Haji Wright's 25th-minute penalty restored Coventry's lead.

But Thomas gave away a penalty in first-half stoppage time with a clumsy handball, enabling Carlton Morris to calmly equalise from the spot, and Ebou Adams' scuffed effort five minutes into the second half put the Rams ahead.

However, City hit back in emphatic fashion to secure their first league win of the season.

Derby played their part in a brilliant game, but Coventry's victory over boss Frank Lampard's former club was very much deserved.

Lampard, who saw his side lose out in last season's play-offs, having also tasted play-off defeat as Derby manager in 2019, will hope City can continue this momentum at home to QPR next Saturday.

Derby, who are at home to Bristol City on Friday, have lost both their opening league games, conceding eight goals in the process.

Coventry went ahead when keeper Jacob Widell Zetterstrom flapped at Torp's low free-kick from the right and his weak parry ricocheted off the head of Thomas and into the net.

The first Derby equaliser also came via a right-wing free-kick, but there was nothing fortuitous about Elder's left-footed strike, which flew past keeper Carl Rushworth and into the far corner of the net.

The goal was Elder's first for Derby, only the fourth of the 30-year-old's senior career, and almost a carbon copy of team-mate Joe Ward's stoppage-time equaliser in the midweek Carabao Cup tie at West Brom.

Coventry responded strongly and Wright thumped in his spot-kick after Mason-Clark had been brought down in the penalty area by Dion Sanderson.

But they were pegged back again, this time after Thomas misjudged Ryan Nyambe's cross and handled the ball with his arm raised high above his head. The resulting coolly-taken penalty by Morris was the striker's second goal in as many games.

And when Thomas could only head Elder's long throw as far as Adams, the Rams captain's scuffed shot put his side in front.

But Thomas and Coventry then profited from a long-throw at the other end, delivered by Van Ewijk, with the defender's looping header bouncing off the post to Thomas-Asante, who netted from close range.

Derby were then undone by a clever diagonal ball out to the right by Torp, which Van Ewijk met with an equally impressive first-time cross for Mason-Clark to head in.

Torp was excellent throughout and his low right-footed shot after collecting Van Ewijk's pass sealed the victory.

'We've got to be better' - reaction

Derby boss John Eustace told BBC Radio Derby:

"Really disappointing to lose. I was proud of the effort of the group again. They were 100% committed. But we needed to be a lot better, especially when we go 3-2 up.

"We've got to defend the box better. It's something we haven't done well enough during pre-season and in the first couple of games. It's something that we've got to keep working on.

"That's not what we're all about. We're always hard to play against, always defend the box for our lives - this is our DNA. In the last two games we just haven't done that well enough.

"The positives to come out of the game were three goals - to go behind twice and come back showed great character. So we've got that fighting spirit, we've just got to be better in both boxes."

Coventry boss Frank Lampard told BBC CWR:

"If it's not my favourite game since I've been here then it's right up there because of the character and quality - we kept playing and kept pushing and showed belief.

"We won at a place a lot of people are going to find really tough. We were really sharp against a back five that don't give you any space.

"I'm just really pleased with the players. They have to have the belief at 3-2 down. An outstanding game from us.

"We scored a couple of real quality goals and I think that quality from us was the difference. The players were fantastic."