adminFrustrated Frank Lampard makes Coventry City admission amid nine men claim
Frank Lampard cut a frustrated figure after Coventry City were held to a goalless draw by Championship strugglers Oxford United, despite dominating large spells of the contest and creating enough chances to win comfortably.
The Sky Blues boss was left ruing his side’s failure to convert their superiority into goals, having enjoyed close to 74 per cent possession at the CBS Arena.
His irritation was compounded by what he felt were key refereeing decisions that went against his team, including an earlier incident that he believed should have reduced Oxford to ten men before Will Lankshear was eventually sent off late on for a heavy collision with Joel Latibeaudiere.
Asked whether it was simply one of those afternoons when nothing would fall for his side, Lampard admitted as much. “Absolutely,” he said. “The players’ application was excellent and the performance was strong.
It’s not easy playing against a low block, especially when teams sit in and try to deny space, but we created enough to win the game and barely gave anything away. Maybe there was one small counter-attack in the first half, but sometimes the ball just doesn’t go in.”
Lampard felt his players handled the tactical challenge well, particularly in maintaining balance and composure in possession. “When you’re up against a low block, it’s not always easy to inject pace, and you’re not going to go long against three big centre-halves,” he explained.
“I thought we were really balanced in the first half, and we wanted to add a bit more speed when possible. We found that straight away after the break.
“We kept pushing, shots were getting blocked, bodies were being thrown in the way, and there were a couple of chances where we could have done better. But apart from that, I can’t complain. The lads were doing so many good things on the pitch – the only thing missing was the goal.”
The Coventry boss acknowledged that his side could have been more direct in the closing stages but felt their overall approach was correct. “Could we have put it in the box more in the last three or four minutes? Yes,” he said. “But before that, did we try to do everything in the right way? For me, yes. We tried everything the right way up until that point.”
Lampard was far less forgiving when reflecting on a flashpoint shortly after the hour mark, when Oxford defender Ciaron Brown brought down Haji Wright as the forward broke towards goal.
The former Chelsea manager was adamant the decision should have resulted in a dismissal.
“There was a clear red card, a second yellow, clear as day,” Lampard said. “Everybody knows it. They should have been down to ten men earlier in the game, and then they would have finished with nine.”
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