FRANK LAMPARD INTERVIEW: ‘I took Derby to the play-off closing and Chelsea into Europe… I do know what it takes to show Coventry slide round and safe promotion to Premier League’

For a club feeling the pressure of a promotion race, the signs are encouraging.

Brazilian ‘phonk’ music, overlaid by raucous laughter, blasts from the gym at Coventry’s base in the Warwickshire countryside.

Though the day’s training session has long since finished, many players have remained to work on individual programmes. Others are still on the outdoor pitches practising shooting and free-kicks.

Form may have dipped at Coventry and their lead at the top of the Championship may have disappeared, but there has been no loss of focus – especially with an immediate chance to regain, against the team who have overhauled them.

Suddenly Coventry are the hunters and though he would have preferred his team to retain their advantage all the way to the end of the season, Frank Lampard can see how they might exploit their new circumstances.

Speaking to Daily Mail Sport in the player break-out room on the first floor at Sky Blue Lodge, Lampard is feeling positive despite his side winning only two of their last eight games.

‘I’ve been fortunate enough to experience how it feels when you’re top of the league for a long time,’ he says. ‘But it was clearly new for some of the players and for a period of time, we handled it well.

Frank Lampard has seen Coventry’s lead at the top of the Championship evaporate in recent weeks

His side have won only two of their last eight games to allow Middlesbrough back into the title race

Coventry had raced into a 10-point lead at the top of the table following an incredible start to the season

‘Then we’ve dropped points and it’s flipped. Of course we wanted to win every game but now we understand the pressures those circumstances brought.

‘Everyone wants to beat you, everyone is talking about you, everyone is saying “Oh, it’s done, they’re promoted”. Now it’s Middlesbrough’s issue and it’s for them to try to deal with that.

‘We have to understand where we’ve come from. From last January, we went on an incredible run to finish fifth and then we started this season with another one.

‘So there was always a chance we might not have stayed the course. But we need to remember we are a good team in this league.’

Lampard is also here to discuss much more important matters. Alongside Coventry supporter Rob O’Malley, Lampard is promoting the Every Minute Matters campaign, driven by Sky Bet and the British Heart Foundation, and supported by the EFL.

By the end of February, the campaign aims to give 500,000 people life-saving CPR skills. Mr O’Malley lost his brother, Shawn, to cardiac arrest in 2002, when he was only 33. Shawn was leading a hiking group in Snowdonia and of the party, only he knew how to perform CPR.

Lampard learned how to do so while studying for his coaching badges and he wants CPR to be taught as widely as possible.

He played with Marc-Vivien Foe, who died of a condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in 2003, at West Ham, and also knew Ugo Ehiogu well. A former England international, Ehiogu suffered a cardiac arrest at Tottenham’s training ground in 2017, while he was working there as a coach.

Lampard is supporting the Every Minute Matters campaign and is pictured here alongside Sky Blues fan Rob O’Malley, who lost his brother, Shawn, to cardiac arrest in 2002

Former Coventry forward Dion Dublin is also backing the campaign this month

‘I’ve lost people through cardiac arrest in my family, at an older age,’ Lampard reflected. ‘Ugo was a great bloke and that one really struck. I’m really pleased to be involved in this campaign. Anyone can learn it, at any age, and you never know how important it might be.’

 Coventry rediscover the rhythm that took them so far in 2025.

Though the players felt dejected after failing to beat 10-man Oxford – who are 23rd in the table – last Saturday, at least Carl Rushworth’s goal was not breached. It was the Sky Blues’ first clean sheet since they beat Swansea 1-0 on Boxing Day.

Lampard also has the course and distance experience. The 47-year-old has now managed 263 games and in his first job, at Derby, the team lost only one of their last 12 games to reach the play-offs.

The following year, his Chelsea side qualified for the Champions League by winning eight of their last 12. That is before his work at Coventry is taken into account, after Lampard hauled them from the brink of a relegation battle into the play-offs last term.

‘Sometimes I still feel like I’m a young manager,’ Lampard admitted. ‘But I’ve experienced a play-off final with Derby and the run to get there.

‘I’ve experienced the Champions League with Chelsea and trying to get in the top four, and where we were worried at one point that we might not do it.

‘So it’s very normal to get these little moments of tension where there’s a lot of jeopardy. There was more jeopardy when I was at Everton (from 2022-23) than anywhere else, because I came in and the confidence was so low.

Coventry were held to a frustrating draw with lowly Oxford last time out

But Lampard does have experience of success in the Championship after guiding Derby to the play-off final in 2019

‘It means I am used to situations like these and I need to be the first one to stay calm and make sure I say the right thing at the right time. You can’t count games and wonder which ones you might win and which might be more difficult.

‘We must never be sloppy, never drop our work ethic. This is still a great group but you can see the stress of losing a game and that’s normal, when you get used to winning games. When you’re winning, the job is as easy as it can possibly be.

‘Even then, as a manager you can’t possibly relax. Football will test you in all sorts of ways. These are the times when the players need support.’

Frank Lampard is the latest footballing hero to back Sky Bet and the British Heart Foundation’s Every Minute Matters campaign as it seeks to create an army of half a million lifesavers.