FRANK Lampard admits Coventry City lacked ‘energy and variation’ in their play following a rare home defeat against Southampton.
The Sky Blues suffered just a second home defeat of the season against Saints as Victor Torp’s injury-time penalty proved in vain for Lampard’s side at the Coventry Building Society Arena.
Second-half goals from Flynn Downes and Kuryu Matsuki condemned City to defeat although the Sky Blues still lead the Championship table by seven points.
And Lampard admits his side’s performance fell below the standards they have set this season.
Lampard said: “Statistically on the real basics, we shouldn’t lose the game.
“We created enough big chances to score three or four goals, we had five big chances in the game.
“In the first half, they wanted to slow the game down from the start in all aspects and we bought into that.
“We normally have more energy and more variation in our game.
“We’re not happy with the goals we conceded. You can’t get that wrong because you won’t win games of football and we weren’t clinical at the top end.
“In the end, we nearly nick a draw because these boys won’t stop and they go to the end.
“By our own standards, were we as good as we want to be? No, but that’s football at this stage of the season, you just want to try and get a result.”
Saints took the lead three minutes into the second-half after Carl Rushworth reacted sharply to tip Matsuki’s dangerous cross onto the post only for Downes to follow up and finish into an empty net from close range.
And Southampton doubled their lead five minutes from time when a corner from the left hit Matsuki in the box and trickled into the net.
Coventry won a penalty in injury time when Shea Charles trod on substitute Torp’s foot in the box as the latter picked himself up to find the bottom left corner from the spot.
However, the Sky Blues ran out of time in their pursuit of a leveller despite applying plenty of pressure as Peretz denied Brandon Thomas-Asante at the death in a breathless finish.
Despite the defeat, Lampard stressed the need for his players to remain positive and to look at the bigger picture in terms of the automatic promotion battle.
Lampard added: “Positivity is the important thing with the lads. They gave everything until the end so we have to go again.
“It can happen, it’s frustrating because we’re used to winning [at home], it makes it hurt a little bit more.
“But the big picture is keep going. It’s just go again and just focus on Swansea.
“We know what the big picture is here. I’m very pleased with what the lads have put in over this last patch of games.”
Coventry are next in action against Swansea City on Saturday, March 21 with kick-off at 5.15pm at the Swansea.com Stadium.
