FRANK Lampard challenged his Coventry City players to adopt a ‘clinical mentality’ after the Sky Blues moved eight points clear at the top of the table with victory against Preston North End in midweek.
Coventry cruised to a 3-0 win against the Lilywhites at the Coventry Building Society Arena as Tatsuhiro Sakamoto, Brandon Thomas-Asante and Matt Grimes all found the net.
The Sky Blues now lead the Championship table by eight points after title rivals Middlesbrough slipped to a surprise 1-0 home defeat against Charlton Athletic.
And Lampard wants his players to remain in a clinical mindset over the remaining nine games of the campaign after Coventry secured a sixth successive league win to equal the club’s longest-ever winning run.
Lampard said: “It’s nice [to be eight points clear]. We’re obviously aware of other results.
“Credit to the lads where they’ve got themselves in this position and we have to just go game by game.
“We know how quickly this league and points can swing in the Championship.
“We have to have that very clinical mentality about us which we showed and we have to keep showing that.
“The approach, the focus was evident from the start of the game.
“The quality of our play, the chances we created and our counter-pressing, it was very complete.”
The two teams traded early chances as Daniel Iversen tipped Frank Onyeka’s powerful volley over the crossbar before Carl Rushworth superbly tipped Ben Whiteman’s header behind at the other end.
Coventry took the lead on 17 minutes when Preston could only clear the ball into the path of Sakamoto who saw his shot from 25-yards out take a wicked deflection off Whiteman and trickle past a helpless Iversen.
The Sky Blues struck again on 34 minutes when Liam Kitching kept a corner from the left alive at the back post and Thomas-Asante chested the ball over the line from close range after Iversen tipped Ellis Simms’ shot onto the crossbar.
Frank Lampard’s side picked up where they left off after the break as Ephron Mason-Clark burst into the box down the left and drew a foul from Pol Valentin as the referee pointed to the spot.
And Coventry skipper Grimes stepped up to score the resulting penalty on 50 minutes as he sent Iversen the wrong way from 12-yards with a finish into the bottom right corner.
Coventry are next in action against Southampton on Saturday, March 14 with kick-off at 12.30pm at the CBS Arena.
