{"id":590653,"date":"2026-04-17T23:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T23:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/590653\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T23:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T23:28:10","slug":"frank-lampard-delight-as-nervy-draw-at-blackburn-seals-promotion-for-coventry-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/590653\/","title":{"rendered":"Frank Lampard delight as nervy draw at Blackburn seals promotion for Coventry | Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

An emotional Frank Lampard basked in the historic achievement of leading Coventry City<\/a> back to the Premier League after an absence of a quarter of a century. The Sky Blues have returned to the big time for the first time in a generation, after a turbulent period in which they changed stadiums, hit financial rock bottom and plummeted to the depths of League Two as recently as 2017-18.<\/p>\n

Lampard was front and centre of celebrations after a 1-1 draw at Blackburn that put the seal on a famous promotion. It has been a long time coming. The former England midfielder lauded Bobby Thomas\u2019s equalising goal as an \u201cincredible moment\u201d in the champagne-soaked celebrations on the Ewood Park turf. \u201cBecause of how the game had gone, you were worried,\u201d said Lampard. \u201cWe knew we were very nearly there, but to get it over the line like this for this club after 25 years, wow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coventry had struggled to battle past a stubborn home side across a tense 90 minutes, knowing just a point would send them up. Ryoya Morishita\u2019s goal for Blackburn briefly silenced the 7,000 Sky Blue fans, before Thomas nodded in from Victor Torp\u2019s free-kick late on. It was hardly a vintage Coventry display but the result was all that mattered to Lampard and his men.<\/p>\n

Many of those Coventry fans dancing in the Ewood Park terraces, clutching sky blue balloons and letting off flares after Thomas\u2019s goal, would not have been alive the last time their team played in the Premier League. The hero of the night, Thomas, was born midway through that 2000-01 season and was four months old when Coventry last featured in the top flight.<\/p>\n

Lampard\u2019s men have played the frontrunners\u2019 role for the bulk of the season, their charge to promotion only briefly halted by recent goalless draws against Hull and Sheffield Wednesday. Now the celebrations can continue until at least Tuesday night when they host Portsmouth. Workplaces in Coventry might as well shut down until at least Wednesday \u2013 this city is having a party.<\/p>\n

Coventry City fans celebrate promotion after Bobby Thomas\u2019s late goal against Blackburn. Photograph: Luke Williams\/Every Second Media\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Lampard, who rightly paid tribute to his predecessor Mark Robins, certainly looked ready to dust off his dancing shoes as he conducted the orchestra in the Darwen End after the final whistle, believing the promotion matches anything he has achieved in football.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a serious, serious football club,\u201d he said. \u201cI grew up with them as a top-flight club but I didn\u2019t realise. Mark Robins had done an incredible job. To get automatic promotion as a non-parachute [payment] team with three games to go, it makes me feel emotional.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll managers talk about the players, but I am proud, and I\u2019m proud of myself and the staff. The boys, me, Chris [Jones] and Joe [Edwards], drove up 15 months ago or whatever in a people carrier, and we went into a bit of an unknown.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve fallen in love with the players, how they have reacted and the fan-base. So it\u2019s right up there for me for what I may have achieved. I was fortunate to be in great Chelsea teams. Winning the Champions League and winning leagues was amazing. But sometimes I could thank Didier Drogba or John Terry for that.<\/p>\n

Coventry City manager Frank Lampard celebrates with the fans after the club\u2019s promotion was confirmed with the draw. Photograph: Jason Cairnduff\/Action Images\/Reuters<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, to do this with this club in the circumstances that we\u2019ve done it, for me, overachieving. I\u2019m not belittling the players there. They\u2019ve raised their game up by pure work, and I\u2019m very proud to be the manager of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 25 years Coventry have been away from the Premier League have been far from straightforward. After a 34-year stay in the top flight ended in 2001, Coventry fans have ridden the Football League rollercoaster, playing in the second, third and fourth tiers, getting a new stadium, being kicked out of that stadium due to financial mismanagement by the controversial Sisu owners, before the Robins-led recovery. Then came the climb back up the divisions, with Lampard applying the icing to the cake.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing,\u201d said midfielder Jack Rudoni. \u201cI can\u2019t describe it. We could have got it done quicker. But with the fans here we couldn\u2019t leave without doing it today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much of Lampard\u2019s success has been built on the work of Robins, though the former Everton and Chelsea coach deserves credit for rebuilding himself as a manager after those Premier League disappointments. He has assembled a fine Championship<\/a> squad, and the fact he was able to usher on top scorers Haji Wright and Brandon Thomas-Asante at Ewood Park, plus Torp, who provided the vital assist, shows he can make telling in-game decisions, too.<\/p>\n

Ryoya Morishita punctured Coventry\u2019s hopes when he fired home off Bobby Thomas in the 62nd minute. Photograph: Lee Parker\/CameraSport\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Blackburn could perhaps feel aggrieved with the draw after a steely display summed up by the impressive goalscorer Morishita, but their head coach, Michael O\u2019Neill, was fairly content with a point that could prove critical to their bid for Championship survival this season.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cIt\u2019s obviously gutting to lose a goal so late having led, but that\u2019s the only disappointment. We wanted to make it difficult for the opposition, but ultimately we couldn\u2019t hang on for the three points.\u201d A former Coventry player, O\u2019Neill added: \u201cFrank\u2019s done a great job, it\u2019s brilliant for the club. I really hope they do well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coventry will now have their sights set on securing the Championship title, before the planning for a huge 2026-27 season begins in earnest. Lampard joked his players \u201ccan have a couple of beers on the way home, but we want to win the league\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An emotional Frank Lampard basked in the historic achievement of leading Coventry City back to the Premier League…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":590654,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[99],"class_list":{"0":"post-590653","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}