DOUG King has revealed Coventry City took a ‘studs in’ approach to the January transfer window to aid the club’s promotion push.
The Sky Blues saw their 10-point lead at the top of the Championship table evaporate following a slump in form from November to February.
A mix of fatigue an injuries saw Coventry sign four players in the January window with one permanent arrival and three loan signings.
In a video posted on the club’s YouTube channel, Sky Blues boss Frank Lampard and Coventry chairman King discussed various topics since the former’s arrival as head coach.
And King believes the signing of Frank Onyeka from Brentford helped Coventry rediscover their best form in the second half of the campaign.
King said: “I said studs in and Frank said absolutely.
“Frank got a little bit nervous that the studs weren’t going in quickly enough.
“It was the moment to make sure we had the insurance [in the squad].
“We got Frank Onyeka in who we identified as somebody who would reinforce us in the middle of the pitch with that bit of steel.
“We got the wingers in, I was relieved we got it done. It was our moment to go hard.
“We were aligned [as chairman and manager], maybe the speed of the studs in, I was a little slower than Frank [wanted].”
Lampard added: “We were in the middle of a tough run and there was clear fatigue.
“I worried and I felt we needed to bolster the squad for players to come in and help us play or push the ones starting.
“My feeling was we’ve got this far, let’s push and I needed to articulate that and explain what I felt like pushing is.”
Coventry triumphed 3-1 against then top-of-the-table Middlesbrough in February to return to the Championship’s summit.
And the Sky Blues remained top of the pile until the end of the campaign to secure promotion as champions.
Lampard believes victory against Boro helped the Sky Blues rediscover their confidence for the remainder of the season.
Lampard said: “The week that made me think was the week into the Middlesbrough game.
“We trained with 10 versus 10 pretty much every day and we trained off the ball.
“They’d just jumped us and everyone was saying ‘are we going to bottle it?’ and we had a great week training.
“The energy of that performance and that night brought everyone’s confidence back.
“It changed the mindset and then we went on another run and just amassed wins.
“The Swansea game was a moment for me. We went three-nil up because we were clinical.
“At half time I showed the players a couple of clips of us in a good block and I said this is what the second half has to look like.
“The lads did it and nullified the game and dealt with the game. It was the moment I thought we would do it in terms of promotion.”
Both Lampard and King also cited Coventry’s emphatic 3-0 win at Swansea City in March as a crucial game en route to securing the title.
And King hailed Coventry’s display as that of champions as the Sky Blues duly clinched the title just four games later.
King added: “That night [against Middlesbrough] was the moment. It felt like a massive game.
“The performance was straight in, you’re coming here and we’re not having it. It was epic.
“We went down to Swansea and that performance there, it was a champions performance.
“They’d been on a great run, they came out in the second half to try and limit the damage, we’ve conquered that moment of seeing us to the top of the pile.”
