Frank Lampard is hopeful that Bobby Thomas and Brandon Thomas-Asante will both be available against Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday when Coventry City could secure a return to the Premier League with four games to spare.
The pair missed last night’s trip to Hull as the Sky Blues put their usual attacking flair on hold to battle their way to a 0-0 draw which was very much a point earned on a day when two of their three rivals for an automatic upgrade also suffered setbacks.
“Bobby had a bit of a knock on his shin and overall fatigue so he was struggling to recover in the turnaround,” explained Lampard. “But he will be OK – there’s no issue.
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“Brandon has a small hamstring and with a player like him you’ve got to be really careful. We’ll do some testing through the week in terms of pushing him to the max and then if he comes through that he’ll be involved on Saturday.”
Fans who made the trip to Yorkshire or watched the action on Sky TV momentarily feared that skipper Matt Grimes might be ruled out this weekend as Hull howled for a red card when the City skipper halted a threatening Tigers attack by pulling back Amir Hadziahmetovic. But Lampard insisted that Joel Latibeaudiere’s proximity to the incident ruled out any prospect of denying a clear scoring opportunity,
“I understand their frustrations,” he said; “it’s a clear yellow and a half because of what it is. But you can’t send him off when Joel’s there – there’s no question for me that that’s anywhere near a red.”
The 0-0 result, mirroring their opening-day stalemate at the CBS Arena, lifted Lampard’s pace-setters 12 points clear of the pack and ensured that, even if they were to lose their next four matches, they would retain their automatic promotion spot going into the final day of the season.
Millwall slipped from second place to fourth when they were edged out 2-1 at The Den by Philippe Clement’s Norwich City while Middlesbrough were held to a 2-2 draw at Swansea in a game of three penalties – the Welshmen’s second and the visitors’ equaliser both comically soft decisions.
There was controversy, too, at Portman Road where Ipswich came from behind to edge Birmingham City 2-1 but the visitors were denied when a linesman ruled the ball had gone out of play before Ibrahim Osman’s cross was deflected into his own net by Dara O’Shea. Blues boss Chris Davies described it as the most frustrating decision of his career while Town’s Kieran McKenna claimed he couldn’t see, which probably tells its own story!
That leaves Ipswich, Boro and Millwall deadlocked on 72 points, although the Tractor Boys, who travel to Carrow Road for the East Anglia derby on Saturday, have two games in hand. They could thus theoretically finish the season on 93 points while Millwall and Boro can both total 87, although Ipswich entertain Boro on April 19 so at least one of them will fall short of their maximum tally…
City were able to monitor their rivals’ progress before their 8.00pm kick-off but Lampard insisted that didn’t affect their gameplan.
“The lads were all aware of it,” he said. “Millwall against Norwich, can they lose that game? Of course they can – Norwich are a good team. Millwall have been amazing this season to do what they’ve done but this is a difficult part of the season. It happens and then you move on, because that could have happened to us here tonight.
“I saw the Middlesbrough game as well. Swansea are a good team – we played them a few weeks ago – so nothing should surprise you and it didn’t take any part in what I was saying pre-game.”
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