“We are top of the league,” sang the Coventry City supporters on loop after returning to the summit of the Championship with a victory that quelled the nagging noise surrounding Frank Lampard and his promotion-chasing side. Coventry, pace-setters for the majority of the season, had won just four league games since the end of November. But Haji Wright hit a timely hat-trick as Coventry again traded places with Middlesbrough, whose six-game winning run came to an abrupt halt, to renew belief in these parts.
Riley McGree pulled a goal back midway through the second half but from the restart Boro conceded a penalty that allowed Wright to claim the match ball. Coventry’s lead may be a single point but this felt a significant victory, psychologically as much as anything, their having taken just 16 from the previous available 39. “There have been quite a few questions asked and I think the lads should get a lot of credit,” Lampard said. “It was a big game, a really good game, which probably showed why we are one and two in the league. We have to take this as a bit of a template of what has to go into a game.”
For Kim Hellberg, by his own admission a “lazy” midfielder who grew up idolising Lampard but turned to coaching aged 23, this was disappointing but not a disaster. When he took charge in November, Boro trailed Coventry by 10 points. On this evidence, while Hellberg bemoaned the manner of the goals Boro conceded, his team will surely run Coventry close as the pair fight for automatic promotion. “There are 14 games left to play and it’s going to be a battle,” Hellberg said. “It will probably be a race until the last day.”
There was a big-game energy in the moments before kick-off: fireworks shooting into the sky, pyrotechnics sparkling and the Enemy, the Coventry band whose We’ll Live and Die in These Towns has been adopted as a club anthem, blaring. The match itself was entertaining from the first whistle, Tommy Conway bounding into Joel Latibeaudiere after Coventry got things under way on halfway and Wright sent a header against a post inside 99 seconds, rising above Luke Ayling to flick Tatsuhiro Sakamoto’s floated cross towards goal. It was a breathless contest between not only first v second in the second tier but also the teams with the best home and away records in the division.
Coventry came into this game winless in three matches and fresh from being held to a 0-0 draw at home to struggling Oxford United. They seized the advantage on 21 minutes. Wright started and finished the move but the true catalyst was Sakamoto, who twirled clear of Conway and then Hayden Hackney before locating Jack Rudoni who squared the ball. Wright’s first-time finish went through the legs of the Boro goalkeeper Sol Brynn.
Lampard’s side looked to Carl Rushworth’s booming kicks to put Boro’s back line under pressure and approaching the hour the hosts doubled their lead in direct fashion. The on-loan Brighton goalkeeper wellied the ball downfield and as it bounced 20 yards from the Boro goal, it became clear that Ayling was in a spot of bother. When the ball bounced a second time, Wright sent a nerveless finish into the far corner of Brynn’s net.
Hackney vented his frustrations after the referee, Thomas Bramall, inadvertently prevented Boro shifting the ball through the middle of the pitch. Boro had begun the second half encouragingly, Morgan Whittaker heading over from a McGree cross and Rushworth held an effort by Hackney after an intricate move. Hellberg freshened things up by introducing Jeremy Sarmiento and David Strelec and within a couple of minutes Boro hit the woodwork themselves when Sarmiento cracked a curling shot against a post.
Eventually Boro got their reward, McGree lashing in on the half-volley but the joy proved short-lived. Within 17 seconds of the restart Matt Targett was penalised for handling a cross from the Coventry substitute Josh Eccles and the hosts restored their two-goal cushion. Eccles held the ball before handing it over for Wright to do the rest from the spot.
“We can’t over celebrate,” Lampard said, mindful of back-to-back games at West Brom and Sheffield United on the horizon.
“There are so many points to fight for. We’ve got ourselves in this position, Boro are there, Ipswich are always going to be there because of their squad and the coach, there’s other teams around it, Millwall etc. It’s game on.”
