Frank Lampard has revealed that Coventry City’s recent upturn in fortunes have echoed the belief from inside the dressing room at the CBS Arena.
Speaking to the Coventry Telegraph after Tuesday night’s 1-0 home success over Queens Park Rangers, courtesy of Bobby Thomas’ 94th-minute winner, the former Chelsea and England legend described the feeling which now surrounds the club in comparison to when he took over on November 28th, with the play-off places firmly in sight for the Sky Blues.
This midweek win saw City climb four places and into eighth place ahead of Wednesday’s remaining fixtures, with those associated with the club no doubt keeping tabs on events at The Hawthorns as West Bromwich Albion take on fellow play-off hopefuls, Blackburn Rovers.
Whilst Coventry are now on a run of five victories in their last six Championship games, Lampard has stated that his squad will continue to be grounded about the situation.
Don Goodman has had his say on Coventry City’s play-off chances under Frank Lampard.
Frank Lampard makes dressing room claim as Sky Blues edge closer to the play-offs
After the West Midlands outfit secured a pivotal three points to remain within touching distance of the play-off places, Lampard’s post-match admissions came with a rather balanced thought process, as City now look forward to their final 14 games of the season.
However, since Lampard took over from modern-day icon Mark Robins, only the top three sides – Leeds United, Sheffield United and Burnley – have accumulated more points, with City taking 27 points out of a possible 45.
| Championship Form Table (November 28th – February 12th) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
| 1 | Leeds United | 15 | 28 | 34 |
| 2 | Sheffield United | 14 | 6 | 29 |
| 3 | Burnley | 14 | 13 | 28 |
| 4 | QPR | 15 | 5 | 27 |
| 5 | Coventry City | 15 | 5 | 27 |
The 46-year-old was quick to praise his squad for their efforts, but admits there is still plenty of work to be done in the encounters which remain.
“Yes, it’s certainly better than being down the bottom, that’s for sure,” Lampard began.
“We came in like that and felt we could improve. There was that feeling within the group and things we felt we could get better at, and the lads have worked steadily and really, really hard and well.”
“They are a pleasure to work with as a first team because they train well and are really responsive to everything we say. The feeling in the dressing room is good and this league will challenge you. They have had tough moments and they have kept going with that, so yes, the reality is we are looking upwards,” he added.
Tuesday’s opponents were then noted as one of the sides who have impressed Lampard this season, having climbed from the bottom of the table to 13th place, with Marti Cifuentes’ side also accumulating 27 points in their last 15 games, continuing to harbour play-off ambitions of their own.
“We’ll take every game as it comes. But this short period has really pushed us up in the league and we cannot relax on that because as we saw with QPR, there are some really good teams out there who give you really tough games,” Lampard continued.
“So it’s nice to be a bit ambitious but at the same time I am pretty grounded with it.”
Coventry City’s chances of making the play-offs
The nature of the Championship this term opened the door for sides such as the Sky Blues to take advantage of other teams’ inconsistencies if they were able to put together a strong run of results, and that scenario has played out under Lampard, losing just five times in all competitions under his management.
What’s equally as impressive is that this upturn in fortunes at the CBS Arena has been done without the likes of Haji Wright and Ben Sheaf – two of City’s most influential performers who remain sidelined at this moment in time, whilst Brandon Thomas-Asante and Ephron Mason-Clark have started to put their best foot forward in the past two-and-a-half months.
This wouldn’t be the first time that Coventry have come from the abyss to mount a play-off surge, having done so in 2022/23, before losing at Wembley Stadium to Luton Town, but you would argue that the overall squad is much more well-rounded this season, despite the side of two seasons ago having the likes of Viktor Gyokeres and Gustavo Hamer at their disposal.
The Sky Blues still have plenty of tough assignments to navigate themselves through, which starts on Saturday as they travel to Hillsborough to take on Sheffield Wednesday, who are also in play-off contention.
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