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No stand-alone match report, I’m afraid, so this MBM will have to do in that regard. Having said that, Coventry’s efforts tonight have catapulted them to the top of our Championship round-up, and in any case it’s another excuse to meet up with Mr PA Media again, our omnipresent pal of pre-match scene-setting fame. Thanks for reading this blog!
Lampard’s opposite number John Eustace speaks to Sky: “I thought we were excellent tonight … really pleasing to come to the best team in the league and perform like we did … real good signs for us … really disappointed to lose … the three goals we conceded were really sloppy, really poor goals … we could have scored a couple [more] ourselves if we’d been more clinical … we have to keep learning and building … we showed great character … were dominant in the first half … in the second we were under pressure … you saw the players they were able to bring on … top players at this level … we have six big games coming up, which we’ll be ready for.”
… and on the penalty decision, Lampard magnanimously says: “I don’t think it’s a pen, but I do understand why the ref gave it … we don’t have VAR at this level … the speed of it, from my angle, I thought urgh, it could be a pen, straight away.”
… as for Jack Rudoni, Lampard says: “He has the ability to play in the Premier League … I just hope it’s with us … he’s a special player … he looked like a Champions League player today … I don’t wanna overcook it!”
More from Lampard on Frank Onyeka, the Brentford loanee and new Coventry hero: “He’s a quality player … an amazing lad … come in from the Premier League … incredible humility … he just comes in and works … such a lovely bloke … I’m delighted for him … this place adores him already … players always see the level of player in training … that was clear straight away so there’s a respect there … he’s so diligent … he’s just had a baby when he first came in … he’s staying in hotels and not seeing his family … I’m like get home and see them … he’s no no, I need to be here, we’ve got a game coming … the way he prepares … massive signals for the rest of the players.”
Frank Lampard talks to Sky Sports. “Enjoy it while it’s there … we don’t always get these nights and these results … the fans are a massive part of what we do … both teams took part in a great game of football and we’ve come out on top … this team has got character … there’s always tension at this part of the season … we started to play their game … credit to Derby because they had a good feeling at the end of the first half … after half time it was more us … a different performance … you can ask [Onyeka] whether it was a shot, I’m taking it as a shot!”
Jack Rudoni, the player of the match, speaks to Sky Sports. “It’s good … I’ve only trained for two days … the gaffer was ‘are you sure you have 30 in you?!’ … I was ‘yeah sure!’ … buzzing to come on and help the team … thought I’d won it with the first one … we had to respond again … that’s been us all season … whenever we have a setback, the fight from the boys has been brilliant … we never dwell on it … we come right back … it shows the spirit … of course it’s close … let’s just win the games … we’re staying focused … we’re a good side and we believe in ourselves … yeah, we’ll do it! We’ll do it!”
As for his mate Frank Onyeka … did he mean that first goal?! “I saw the keeper and thought I have to chip it! … ha ha! … but good goal! … I hope it’s the first of many more to come.”
Coventry City are now so close to ending their quarter-century exile from the Premier League. Just eight more points will guarantee promotion … and they’ve got home games to come against doomed Sheffield Wednesday and struggling Portsmouth. What a story it would be if they make it, perhaps with Millwall in tow. Anyone else of a certain generation got the theme to ITV’s The Match as an earworm?
Coventry and Derby shared eight goals at Pride Park last August; they share five tonight in another thriller! Derby were the better team in the first half, but Coventry showed the resilience of champions afterwards. They were greatly improved in the second, and ended up deserved winners, refusing to buckle when Derby levelled for a second time thanks to an unjustly awarded spot kick. Jack Rudoni is their two-goal hero, and he leads the celebrations as the CBS Arena slips into party mode. A huge result in the race for the Championship title, and promotion to the Premier League!
FULL TIME: Coventry City 3-2 Derby County
Coventry are now just eight points away from a return to the Premier League!
90 min +8: There’s still time for Allen to swing one in from the right. Agyemang meets the dropping ball at the far stick, but he’s falling backwards and can neither head goalwards nor send the ball back across the face of goal! Instead he eyebrows it out for a goal kick.
90 min +7: … then erupts with relief as Ward wafts a dismal free kick straight into the arms of Rushworth.
90 min +6: Brereton Diaz wins a cheap free kick off Mason-Clark, 35 yards out, just to the right of centre. One last chance for Derby to throw a Hail Mary. The CBS Arena falls into nervous almost-silence …
90 min +5: Ward probes down the right but Dasilva is not for passing.
90 min +4: Rudoni wastes as much time as he can before taking the resulting free kick. Derby eventually snaffle the ball back but Brereton Diaz is only able to blooter upfield and out for a throw. Time, Coventry’s friend now, continues to march on.
90 min +3: Rudoni, Coventry’s hero in waiting, takes the corner short, then draws a foul. The clock ticks on.
90 min +2: Mason-Clark drives down the left and glides infield. He aims a curler towards the far corner. The ball takes a deflection off Ward and nearly loops in, the keeper rooted and stranded. But it sails out for a corner.
90 min +1: The first of seven additional minutes. The home fans with a collective sharp intake of breath.
90 min: Coventry replace their captain Grimes with Torp.
89 min: Murkin with space down the left. But he can’t beat the first man with his cross. It really hasn’t been his night. But say what you will about Derby’s unfortunate left-back, at least he’s not been anonymous Murkin. (And yes I did require a supersize crowbar to squeeze in that reference to an obscure Anthony Newley musical that doesn’t quite work now I come to think about it.)
87 min: Agyemang steams down the left and rolls a pass across the face of the Coventry box for Fraulo, who lets the ball trundle across his body … and there goes the opportunity to shoot.
86 min: Ozoh makes way for Allen.
85 min: Agyemang and Fraulo combine at speed down the left. For a second, it looks as though they’ve opened Coventry up, but That Man Van Ewijk arrives from nowhere to intercept and clear! He’s everywhere at the moment.
84 min: These two teams have rustled up 13 goals between them in their showdowns so far this season. Time for another? Derby fancy their chances of another equaliser, but Fraulo can’t sort his feet out in the box.
83 min: Another assist for that man Van Ewijk, by the way! A case study in never giving up.
82 min: Rushworth celebrated that goal as though he’d scored it himself. A release of all that frustration. And in other frustration news, Agyemang leaves a cheeky one on Thomas, studs atop the boot. He’s booked for it, and can count himself lucky not to be walking. Thankfully Thomas survives.
GOAL! Coventry City 3-2 Derby County (Rudoni 80)
Sakamoto dribbles down the right. He’s held up but cuts back for Van Ewijk, who curls low into the mixer. Rudoni meets the ball first time, and sweeps a sidefoot across O’Donnell and into the bottom left!
79 min: Coventry will wonder how they allowed themselves to be split apart so easily. But then again, they might not, because …
GOAL! Coventry City 2-2 Derby County (Brereton Diaz 77 pen)
Brereton Diaz sidefoots into the right-hand portion of the net, having sent Rushworth the wrong way. Poor Rushworth, who flicked the ball away from the keeper only to be penalised. But nobody was saving that pen.
Penalty for Derby County!
76 min: A ball down the middle of the park for Brereton Diaz. He’s clear! He takes a heavy touch, though, and in trying to go round Rushworth on the left, goes over the keeper’s arm. The referee points to the spot, though the keeper got a fingertip to the ball. It was fine work from the keeper, but he’s unfairly punished. No VAR, so the decision will stand. Rushworth fuming!
74 min: Ward slips a pass down the left for Agyemang, who fizzes a low shot-cum-cross towards the near post. But there’s nobody in Derby grey making a run, and Rushworth claims without fuss.
73 min: Banel, who had his chances to put Derby into the lead, is replaced by Fraulo.
72 min: Onyeka busies himself down the right and wins a corner. Nothing comes of it, but Coventry are well on top now.
