Coventry City match reaction from CoventryLive as Sky Blues boss Frank Lampard reveals why Good Friday’s 2-0 win pleased him so much

Frank Lampard viewed Good Friday’s crucial victory over West Bromwich Albion as a clear marker for just how far his Coventry City side have come in his time at the club.

The head coach took the Sky Blues to The Hawthorns in his third game in charge when they lost 2-0 on a difficult night against a Baggies side that were seemingly sitting pretty in the top six at the time.

But City’s progress since has been nothing short of remarkable after taking 45 points from 23 games, compared to Albion who have managed to collect 28 from the same amount played.

READ MORE: What Frank Lampard liked most about Coventry City’s ‘complete’ performance against West Brom

READ MORE: Coventry City player ratings v West Brom

“I personally was so pleased with the performance because when we played West Brom in my third game I thought there was a difference in level of physicality in terms of their physical ability to get around the pitch and be intense,” said Lampard, speaking after the 2-0 CBS Arena win.

“I thought they looked like that and we were short of that at that point. They had their idea of how they wanted to play but we didn’t so much, which was normal having only been in for three games. And then when you look at today it’s a nice thing to see for the players, that the work that they have done in the meantime to be able to compete on a different level to that.”

Asked if he sees the first result of the Easter weekend as a real marker of progress his team has made, he said: “Yeah, I just felt that because West Brom was a real standout game for me during that early period.

“They were in the play-offs and they have some Premier League players, and I felt that at the time. We competed alright on the night and had some chances, but they were the better footballing team and I felt that energy and strength in them. We have worked a lot on condition and training and pushing on, accelerating and decelerating in games and being able to press.

“And the standout thing for me today was the midfield, pressing and recovering and that was a huge part of it but I am not sure we had that capacity back at that point in December.”

He added: “We work a lot here with the staff and Chris Jones is big on the physical stuff. We work together with Joe (Edwards) but the players are the ones who do it and I think they feel their extra capacity now. But we have not achieved anything yet. We are hoping to make the play-offs but today was a good performance.”

Coventry City delivered a hammer blow to West Bromwich Albion’s Championship play-off hopes

West Brom boss Tony Mowbray was disappointed by the paucity of Albion’s display in their loss to Coventry City.

The damaging defeat leaves the Baggies six points off the play-off places with only three games to play and in reality contemplating yet another season of Championship football.

Albion had their moments at the CBS Arena but they trailed from as early as the sixth minute, when Jack Rudoni opened the scoring, and had a mountain to climb when Matt Grimes made John Swift pay for being caught on the ball early in the second half.

That leaves Albion eighth in the table and without an away win since mid-November and their manager in downbeat mood.

Disappointing, frustrating, didn’t perform at our level. Away, we just haven’t accrued the points that we need to,” Mowbray said.

“It’s frustrating that we aren’t getting to the level we need to be at in such big games. The team performed below the level that they’ve been showing they can play at, with it being such a big occasion I think they’re a bit unsure why that happened.

“Coventry are a decent team and they’re on a good run of form and yet I still felt that we would come here and dominate more.

“They played pretty well first half, tried to make the changes at half-time that would have given us more control of the football match and yet we lost a goal within three minutes and had a sending off pretty quickly after and obviously the dynamic of the game changed.