Inside the CBS Arena: Sea of sky blue, Sheaf belief, and Frank Lampard talks home advantage

Coventry City news from CoventryLive as Sky Blues reporter Andy Turner opens up his notebook on the latest from in and around the CBS Arena

Coventry City face a make or break final game of the regular season when they entertain Middlesbrough knowing that victory will secure the club’s place in the play-offs.

Promotion rivals Boro, meanwhile, also know that a win for them is a must, albeit they have to rely on Millwall slipping up at Burnley – who could be fighting for three points to secure the Championship title if Leeds beat Bristol City tonight (Mon) – and Blackburn Rovers dropping points at Sheffield United.

It makes for an exciting and nerve-racking finale to the campaign as five clubs (Bristol, Sky Blues, Millall, Blackburn and Middlebrough) battle it out for fifth and sixth place in the table, the final two available spots. As the excitement builds, here we take a look at what’s going on in and around the club.

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Home advantage

There was huge disappointment at the weekend when the Sky Blues missed out on what might have been a valuable point at the death at Luton, particularly after such a valiant defensive battle to keep a clean sheet with ten men for much of the match.

But at least the club still have their play-off fate in their own hands and are boosted by the fact that their final game to get over the line is on home soil where City’s form has been excellent under Frank Lampard. Buoyed by another sell-out crowd of over 30,000 and another incredible atmosphere at the CBS Arena, hopes will be high that the fans will drive the players to get the job done.

“It’s great for us,” said Lampard. “We have the feeling of disappointment (from Luton) because we could have affected it. But we still felt we needed to win Saturday’s last game to be clear. So it doesn’t change. We will have a lot of motivation when things settle. We’ll have the home crowd behind us but we can’t disrespect Boro who will be in a similar situation.”

Big week build-up

It’s a big week of preparation to build into such a significant game, so what can the players expect in the build-up to Boro?

“I haven’t thought about it too much,” said Lampard, speaking after the Luton defeat. “It’s important not to ramp up the pressure on the lads on Monday and Tuesday. They understand what we’re in and we’ll prepare pretty normally for the game, stay calm, prep really well and give everything on match day.”

Call for sea of sky blue

Fans are rallying on social media to turn the CBS Arena into a sea of sky blue this weekend by wearing the club’s home colours, scarves and flags.

It’s unclear at this stage whether supporters will be allowed to take flags from recent trips to Wembley, but coordinated colour will certainly add to the occasion. The club will confirm this week on the flag policy.

Coventry City fans show their support in the stands with flags from Wembley — Coventry City fans are waiting to hear if they can bring their flags to the CBS on Saturday

Sheaf on belief

Ben Sheaf insists that despite the weekend’s disappointment, belief remains strong in the Sky Blues camp that the players can secure their place in the play-off mix this weekend.

“It was a difficult one to swallow,” said the skipper, reflecting on the 1-0 defeat at Luton, “but we dug in for the whole game. But yeah, that’s football sometimes. Football can be cruel sometimes, but we’ll look at it and then we’ve got to look after ourselves on Saturday and all the focus is on that now. We’ve got one big game to go.”

He added: “These are the games that you want to be playing as a player. You want to be involved, you want to feel that pressure and be able to embrace that.

“It’s going to be another big one on Saturday and we’ve just got it dust ourselves down and look forward to that one because we know what we can do at the CBS.

“We’ve got ourselves in this position now and we don’t want to lose that now. We’re worthy of being where we are because of the quality that we have and the way we’ve played.

“We have confidence in the squad and the coaching staff have been fantastic since they’ve come in so yeah, the belief is there for sure.”