Coventry City comment from CoventryLive as Sky Blues reporter Andy Turner reflects on another memorable occasion at the CBS Arena
Frank Lampard sang along to ‘We’ll Live and Die in These Towns’ after Coventry City’s stoppage time victory over Stoke
When Coventry City first moved back to the CBS Arena and were striving to get a foothold back in the Championship they made a habit of scoring late winners – from Kyle McFadzean’s fever pitch inducing finishes against QPR and Nottingham Forest to Matty Godden’s against Reading and Bristol City.
There’s something particularly special about a stoppage time goal to trigger the emotions, lifting you from a position of resignation to settling for a point as the seconds tick away to flipping your feelings to euphoria in a moment.
And on Saturday against Stoke we all revelled in another of those occasions when Jack Rudoni steered home off the heel of Potters’ defender Ben Gibson to secure the Sky Blues’ fourth straight victory in the space of 12 days and reassert the team’s authority at the top of the division.
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It wasn’t a brilliant goal like Rudi’s outstanding headed winner at Bramall Lane or sublime top corner finish at The Hawthorns, but it was one full of character and determination – from Brandon Thomas-Asante lifting the ball over the top for Ellis Simms to chase and challenge the keeper, to the attacking midfielder’s cool head and presence of mind to make sure the loose ball ended up in the back of the net.
The relief was tangible as the stadium erupted with celebrations on the pitch, in the dugout, in the stands and even in the press box where the usual etiquette went out of the window. Although there’s still 11 big games to go, it felt like a huge moment that reaffirmed City’s return to promotion form in recent weeks following the mid-term wobble when the rest of the league rubbed their hands at the prospect of the wheels coming off.
Frank Lampard certainly enjoyed the celebrations, singing along to ‘We’ll Live and Die in These Towns’ as he went onto the pitch at the final whistle to take part in the regular post-match fist pumps in Singers’ Corner. It’s great to see how invested he is in the football club which has clearly touched him deeply in such a relatively short space of time.
Speaking about how much he enjoyed Saturday’s lap of appreciation, he said: “Yeah, because of the character and it was what we deserved. We can all, in our minds, be resigned to what might be in the seven minutes of stoppage time and the game being broken by them at any point and it could die.
“But our lads didn’t let it die and we got a big three points and we know they are all critical now, so you can enjoy that at the end because the fans loved it, I loved it and the players loved it. And they should because of the way they played, and then quickly come down and think about the next one. But they fought for the result and I thought they were brilliant in every sense of the game.”
City’s league record at home under Lampard is outstanding. The head coach has overseen 32 matches to date, having won 24, drawn five and lost just three. That’s a whopping 77 points in the space of 15 months and instils real confidence ahead of the final run-in, which includes six more at Fortress CBS.
But as much as we all love a late winner, hopefully they won’t be as nail biting as last weekend’s victory as the Sky Blues push for a grand stand finish to what is shaping up to be an historic season.
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Our dedicated reporter Andy Turner – who you can follow on X – follows the Sky Blues home and away and offers you comprehensive coverage from matchdays, press conferences and everything that happens in between.
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