Coventry City match reaction from CoventryLive as Frank Lampard gives his reaction to the Sky Blues’ performance
Coventry City head coach Frank Lampard
Frank Lampard admitted his frustration after Coventry City dominated Championship strugglers Oxford United but simply couldn’t put the ball in the back of the net.
The Sky Blues boss’ feeling was strengthened by the fact that he felt his players should have ended the game against nine men, complaining that the referee missed a clear red card midway through the second half before striker Will Lankshear was sent off 13 minutes from the conclusion of normal time for smashing into Joel Latibeaudiere.
Asked if it was a case of one of those days when his team simply couldn’t get the ball in the back of the net despite almost 74 percent of possession, Lampard agreed after the goalless draw: “Absolutely one of those days.
“I thought the players’ application was great, the performance was good. It’s not easy against a low block and organising our distances to play between too much but we created enough to win the game and we gave nothing away, maybe one little counter attack first half but yeah, it doesn’t go in the net sometimes.
“When you’re playing against a low block it’s not always easy to inject speed and you’re not going to play long to three big centre halves.
“I thought the lads were really balanced in their play in the first half, we wanted a little bit more speed when we could do and we found that straight away in the second half.
“We pushed and pushed, things were hitting them, they were getting blocks and there were a couple of chances we might have done better with and we didn’t, but other than that I can’t complain with the lads whose application was great. They were doing really good stuff on the pitch other than the ball going in the net.
“Could we have stuck it in the box in last three or four minutes, yes. Before that did we try and do everything in the right way for me? Yes. Up until that we tried everything in the right way.”
As for the incident when he felt U’s defender Ciaron Brown was lucky to stay on the pitch just after the hour at the CBS Arena when he brought down Haji Wright en-route to goal, the head coach moaned: “There was a clear red card, second yellow, clear. Everybody knows. They should have had ten men earlier in the game and then they’d have had nine men.”
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