FRANK Lampard praised Jamie Paterson for producing a special moment in Coventry City’s dramatic 1-0 win against Portsmouth.
Paterson came off the bench to score his first goal for his boyhood club in the 94th minute at the Coventry Building Society Arena.
Lampard praised the quality of Paterson’s winner and felt his side deserved all three points after plugging away all game.
Lampard said: “It was amazing, and I think we got what we deserved because we pushed and we pushed.
“It was a difficult challenging game, with us probably not at our best and we’ve been playing really well lately.
“The individual story and quality of Pato, to score that goal is something very, very special, because of how he feels about the club and because of his story being a young fan of the club growing up.
“Pato scores a goal of that level of quality in the last moments of the game, made it a really special night.
“It was an outstanding finish and it’s such a hard skill and the agility and technical side of it is top level and to be fair to Pato he has done that throughout his career.”
The Sky Blues won the game at the death when Portsmouth failed to deal with Bradley Collins’ long kick and Jack Rudoni floated a cross to the back post as Paterson sent a stunning volley into the right corner of the goal to spark wild scenes of celebration.
And the victory moves Coventry back into the Championship play-off places, two points clear of the chasing pack in the race for a play-off place.
Lampard also praised his side’s spirit and insists City must keep winning games if they are to achieve a top-six finish.
Lampard added: “Great teams score great goals late and I’m not proclaiming us to be a great team but you know if you’re building to something and you’ve got spirit.
“You push to the end and maybe we deserved more in games at times this season and we don’t get it, but we score at the end because we kept going with quality and character.
“It’s a big plus for us and it’s not luck when you keep battling away and bashing away for the second half of the game, that you get maybe what you deserve at the end.
“It’s important to just keep winning games. We know what sort of race we’re in, we’re in a race for the play-offs.
“When I came in, we were looking downwards and probably in more of a relegation battle and now we are pushing for the play-offs and that’s just what it is.
“We have to continue with each game as it comes and try and get three points when they come.”
Coventry are next in action against Hull City on Monday, April 14 with kick-off at 8pm at the MKM Stadium.
