Frank Lampard watched on as his Coventry side conceded against Sunderland in the 120th minute to leave their play-off promotion hopes in tatters at the Stadium of Light
Frank Lampard was left devastated by Coventry‘s 120th minute play-off exit after Sunderland scored with the last moment of their semi-final tie. The Sky Blues endure another near post-season miss with the Chelsea icon now at the helm.
Daniel Ballard’s header in added time sealed the path to Wembley for Sunderland, who had finished the Championship season in fourth, one place ahead of Coventry. Lampard has overseen a sensational revival having taken over in December when the club were 17th.
The Midlands outfit were beaten late on in the first-leg, losing 2-1 after Eliezer Mayenda’s strike in the 88th minute. Lampard though was adamant that they dominated on their own patch and then produced another sensational showing at the Stadium of Light.
Ephron Mason-Clark’s goal forced extra-time and the tie looked destined for penalties, only for Sunderland to win it at the death and leave a number of the Coventry players on their knees as they dealt with the devastation.
Lampard has endured play-off heartache as a manager, losing in the final to Aston Villa with Derby back in 2019, but he was visibly emotional after the contest as he attempted to process the loss after his players had given so much.
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He said: “Firstly congratulations to Sunderland, they go to the final but immense pride I’ve got in my players. If anyone watched the two games, we dominated at home, we made a mistake and they scored. I think we dominated huge periods of this game. We played, controlled and in the second half it was wave after wave.
“The players have given everything from where we’ve come from – 17th in the league in December and the players have been brilliant in the second half of the season.
“They had to concede to us because of the way we played and with the way the lads controlled the game they don’t deserve it. I’m a lot older and I’ve been around a lot so I’ve taken whacks and I’ve had success so maybe I can be a bit more balanced in my job but for those players, they don’t deserve that.
“We’re not bitter, and congratulations to Sunderland but we were the better team over the two football matches and that’s why they’ll be so happy going to Wembley.”
It is the second time in three seasons that Coventry have been close to the Premier League, only to miss out. Two years ago they were beaten in the play-off final when Mark Robins was at the helm. On that occasion Luton outdid them on penalties with the Sky Blues’ last top flight appearance coming back in 2001.
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