Frank Lampard described Coventry City’s 3-2 victory over Derby County as a “big win” in the club’s push for the Premier League.
The Sky Blues twice took the lead and were pegged back on both occasions by the Rams before substitute Jack Rudoni bagged his second of the night, and the winner, to add to a stunning Frank Onyeka opener in the first half.
Another three points extended the club’s lead at the top of the Championship to 11 points clear of second placed Millwall, who leap-frogged Middlesbrough earlier in the day with a 2-1 win at the Riverside. Boro dropped to third as a result, leaving them 12 points behind City with six games left to play.
“Yeah, it’s a great win,” said Lampard, whose side chalked up their eighth league win out of their last nine in the televised night match which edged the Midlands club closer to the securing automatic promotion.
“It was a tough match, tough opposition and we knew that off the back of international break is not easy. That’s the same for them but for us to try and keep the momentum that we’ve had, I’m delighted because it shows immense character, immense talent, immense togetherness in the stadium and everything around it. And it’s a big win for us at this point in the season.”
The head coach couldn’t be more pleased with January signing Onyeka getting his first goal for the club but felt his players dropped off after taking the 12th minute lead from the Nigerian midfielder’s stunning angled finish into the far top corner.
“It was brilliant from Frank, not just the finish, but the winning the ball back and Cruyffing near the touch line and then going and joining in again (to receive the pass from Romain Esse in the box),” he said.
“It’s the attributes that we brought him in to do but the special thing is the goal. I felt a goal was coming for Frank. He’s quite hungry to get in there and has got the capacity to arrive and shoot, and it was a fantastic goal.”
He added, however: “I felt a bit like it maybe affected our performance in the first half because to go one nil up in the tension part of the season sometimes can make you take less risk and think, ‘oh, we’re one up now so we just need to see this through,’ but we didn’t play our normal game.
“We played their game, which was a bigger game with longer balls and transition and second balls, and they’re really good at that. They do it a lot. We can engage in that game but it’s not us at our best here.
“So there was a lot to be said at half-time and in the second half, that was us. And they (Derby) were still always a threat because of what they have got at the top of the pitch, but I was really pleased with how the lads played the second 45 considering how we played and we knew it wasn’t us in the first half.”
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