Frank Lampard has admitted publicly for the first time that he and his Coventry City players want to win the league.
The Sky Blues boss played down the prospect of pushing for the Championship title a few weeks ago despite the club enjoying a ten point lead at the top of the table. However, Saturday’s sequence of results meant City are all but secured automatic promotion by virtue of a huge plus 33 goal difference over Millwall – the only club outside the top two that can match their points tally with four games to go.
And they now face a two horse race with second placed Ipswich Town for the Championship title. City are ten points ahead of the Tractor Boys on 85 with four games left, able to get a maximum of 97. Town have two games in hand but can only reach 93 points if they win their remaining six matches.
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Lampard admitted his players felt a bit of tension at the CBS Arena at the weekend where they could only manage a goalless draw against relegated Sheffield Wednesday. And asked if there’s likely to be more pressure on Friday night at Blackburn Rovers when Coventry need just one more point mathematically confirm their return to the Premier League, he said: “Every game will because we want to get promoted and we want to win the league.
"So every game will (have pressure). And Blackburn want to win the game badly. And they’re fighting and they’re getting results, so it’s not all about us, this game.”
Rovers have managed to pull themselves out of the bottom three and up to 19th - four points clear of the Championship drop zone - under new boss Michael O’Neil who has overseen four wins and four draws from his first 11 games in charge at Ewood Park.
And Lampard insisted: “The opposition will be trying to win it as well but we do know what it is and we have got four more games, and we know what exactly what we need to do. But football’s about action, not about words, so we need to recover, focus and really push in this long season for the games ahead.”
Lampard admits that his players are not used to a very different kind of pressure at the top of the division and pointed to the fact that even the likes of the Premier League leaders are vulnerable to a few nerves after the Gunners dropped points at the weekend in their quest for the title with Manchester City chasing up the rear.
“Arsenal lost 2-1,” he said. “It’s’s not easy, and they’ve got a squad full of big time internationals and that’s what football can do to you.
“So these boys are living in this experience and it’s great because otherwise we could be mid-table, we could be fighting for play-offs and there would be different tensions everywhere. But this is a good tension.
“But obviously that tension breeds a bit of frustration when you don’t get what you want in games like Saturday. But fine, we’ll sleep well hopefully and get up tomorrow and go again.”
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