After securing a fifth straight victory, Coventry City’s players, staff and supporters savoured the moment as one. “We are top of the league,” was the chorus stuck on loop. As Frank Lampard left the pitch with a sold-out away end at Ashton Gate serenading him, the fans invariably obliged when he asked them to turn up the volume. Josh Eccles, who joined the club aged seven, was the last to head in. To lean into an analogy parroted by the Coventry owner, Doug King, who refers to squads as decks, Lampard’s hand is akin to a royal flush.
No wonder Lampard was nonplussed this week when asked about clubs voting to extend the Championship playoffs to six teams next season. With 10 games to play, Coventry are nine points clear of third-placed Millwall and it seems increasingly likely that they won’t be in the division to live the change. They may require only a handful of wins to return to the top flight for the first time since relegation in 2000-01. “I left Ipswich last summer and in many ways you can compare what the two clubs have been through,” says the Coventry defender Luke Woolfenden. “Both were relegated to League One and when you get that promotion, you can feel something special happening. It is a good feeling and it can take you a long way; now we’re into the final straight.”
King, who completed the full purchase of the club three years ago and last August bought their stadium from Mike Ashley, sacked a near-untouchable manager in Mark Robins in November of last season because he felt a talented squad were underachieving, lagging behind in the race for the playoffs. Robins did a magnificent job in trying circumstances but the best thing he did was rebuild the bond between the club and a weary fan base.
Enter Lampard, who last season guided them into the top six, only to be undone by Sunderland in extra time of their playoff semi-final second leg. Now, after a couple of near-misses, Coventry are determined to clinch automatic promotion. “We’ve had a little stumble,” Lampard says of a run of four wins in 14 in all competitions from December until the beginning of February. “Everyone made a big deal out of it, but the lads addressed that and hopefully they’ve learned that our own consistency is going to be the thing that will either get us there [to the Premier League] or not. Since we’ve been together, a year and a bit, I have seen the players grow. You can only get experience by going through it, right?”
Middlesbrough defeated QPR 4-0 to keep their push for automatic promotion from the Championship on course.
David Strelec, Alan Browne and Hayden Hackney were on target at Loftus Road before a late Tommy Conway penalty added gloss to a second away victory inside a week for Boro.
Kim Hellberg's side remain second on 69 points, five behind leaders Coventry and four above third-placed Millwall. Ipswich, in fourth, trail Boro by five points with a game in hand.
Hellberg said "the performance overall was brilliant" before lauding the travelling Middlesbrough fans for how "they controlled this game in a very good way". He said: "They were high, they were loud, they were supporting us all through the game, they were brilliant as always."
Boro host Charlton on Wednesday before another home game against Bristol City next Saturday.
Defeat leaves QPR in 16th place, their season threatening to peter out after they had harboured hopes of a playoff tilt. Julien Stéphan's men have now lost three consecutive games and have won only twice in all competitions since 4 January.
Coventry have scored a league-high 74 goals, with the USA striker Haji Wright taking his tally to six goals in his past five matches and 16 for the season after doubling their lead at Bristol City – only Swansea’s Zan Vipotnik has scored more in the division this campaign – but in the West Country they had to show a different face, too. They had only 16 touches in the opposition box, less than half the number their hosts managed. Lampard was particularly satisfied with his players’ body language. “Those things are critical at this phase of the season, with the pressure,” he says. “We can’t slack off now.”
Coventry are awash with talent. Matt Grimes is a seasoned performer at this level. Tatsuhiro Sakamoto, who opened the scoring, springing above Cameron Pring to head in, is a busy, endearing Japanese winger. Milan van Ewijk is probably the best full-back in England outside the Premier League. In the winter window, they added Frank Onyeka and Romain Esse on loan from Brentford and Crystal Palace respectively.
Carl Rushworth, the 24-year-old goalkeeper yet to make an appearance for his parent club, Brighton, made a superb stoppage-time save to preserve a clean sheet and is highly regarded within England circles. “England’s No 1,” was the chant that rained down from the away end. “Rushy is a high, high-talent goalkeeper, he can go as far as he wants to go,” Lampard says.
Until Onyeka’s arrival, which will become permanent if Coventry are promoted, Woolfenden was the player with the most Premier League experience on his CV, 15 games for Ipswich. “The Tank has overtaken me,” Woolfenden says. “We’ve got a lot of experienced players that have played in good Championship teams. I’ve not played that many games in the division compared to Grimesy [Matt Grimes], Bidders [Jake Bidwell], Jamie Allen. Even the boys who don’t make the squad, the sessions are still really good the day after games. Everyone is pushing.”
It is easy to forget, given the overwhelming feelgood factor around the place – arguably most evident before home games when supporters take their cue to join in with the Enemy’s We’ll Live and Die in These Towns anthem – but top spot marks new territory for this iteration. Since promotion to the second tier six years ago, Coventry’s finishes read: 16th, 12th, fifth, ninth, fifth. Eccles, now 25, was a scholar trying to make his way when the club dropped into League Two in 2017.
“You can see what it means to the fans,” Woolfenden says. “Over the last few years, they’ve had some good runs that have ended in defeat, in some of the worst ways, and before that there was a lot of change at the club and financial troubles. It is about the collective and getting over the line.”
Lampard admits he has exceeded his expectations. “We’re in a good position from what we would have thought about at the start of the season,” he says. “But we felt our difficult moment and how we had to fight to get out of it. We don’t want another one of those.”
So, Coventry are in a plum spot with back-to-back home games against Preston and Southampton on the horizon? “I won’t even answer that question, because it’s the Championship,” Lampard replies. Woolfenden perhaps puts it best: “You can’t get ahead of yourself, because particularly in the Championship, you can get bit on the ass.”
