Coventry City midfielder Josh Eccles insists the Championship leaders’ patchy run of form has not dented the belief in their bid for promotion to the Premier League.

Sunday’s 3-2 away defeat to Birmingham was a third reverse in eight games for the Sky Blues since the start of December.

Yet despite picking up just two narrow wins and nine points in that sequence, Coventry have a six-point lead over second-placed Middlesbrough and an eight-point buffer in the automatic promotion spots.

“We know the talent we’ve got in the squad, we’ve got the belief,” Eccles told BBC CWR.

“Obviously these little losses set you back, but we’ve given ourselves such a head start with the start we’ve had this season.

“It doesn’t allow you [to accept defeats], but these sorts of games, you just bounce back the next game, so we’ve got to rest and recover and focus on the next one.

“We’ve got the personality, it just needs to come out.”

Eccles also paid further tribute to Jamie Allen, who missed the trip to St Andrew’s because of a close family bereavement, having held up the midfielder’s shirt after scoring the first equaliser.

“As soon as we heard we wanted to do something if we scored,” Eccles added.

“We managed to sort the shirts out before the game to show our support. He knows we’re always there for him.

“He means a lot to us. We all know what Jamie gives to us in the team.”

Coventry travel to Stoke in the FA Cup third round on Saturday (15:00 GMT) before resuming their Championship season with the visit of Leicester City on 17 January.