‘Impossible’ – Frank Lampard expecting Coventry City response for Middlesbrough after ‘suffering’.
Coventry City host Middlesbrough in a crunch final-day game off the back of two defeats
Frank Lampard is not concerned by his Coventry City side’s dip in form ahead of Saturday’s crunch clash with Middlesbrough, and insists his side will regroup and be ready after the defeat to Luton Town.
Lampard’s side have now won just three of their last nine ahead of hosting Boro on the final day of the season at the CBS Arena. They go into the game off the back of two defeats to sides at the bottom end of the table. But both of those games were away from home, with their three most recent wins coming in their four home games of the nine-game period.
Both Coventry and Boro can still quality for the play-offs on the final day, though for Boro they will now be relying on results elsewhere going in their favour too. Before anything else they have to beat the Sky Blues though – and in doing so they’d be only the third team this calendar year (alongside title challengers Burnley and Leeds) to beat Lampard’s side at the CBS Arena.
Looking ahead to the game after the Luton setback, Lampard told sister site Coventry Live: “This is football, by the way. I played football for a long time and everyone sees the glory days and the lifting of the cups but people forget the suffering, the losing and then the recovering and resilience and all those things as a sports person.
“We wouldn’t be able to go from 17th and cruise into the play-offs. It’s impossible from where we were. So from that little bit of suffering now and after Plymouth a little bit, it’s normal. We have to try to win the last game to get the objective.
“There’s a great spirit within the group. That’s why we’ve been able to amass the amount of points we have – spirit first, quality second. At the minute, we’re not getting that little bit of quality and we’ve made mistakes in the last two. But spirit is never a question with this group.
