FRANK Lampard insists Coventry City must be ‘robust and resilient’ as the Sky Blues seek to return to winning ways against play-off rivals Sunderland this weekend.
Coventry suffered a setback in their pursuit of a play-off place in midweek after suffering a 2-0 defeat away at relegation-threatened Derby County in midweek.
However, Lampard admits his players must stay strong after seeing their five-game winning run come to an end.
Lampard said: “The reaction has been good. It happens in football and we’ve been on an amazing run.
“It’s important now that we realise what we’ve been doing as we have a really tough game coming up.
“I am experienced at these things and I have been in these situations before.
“You take hits like Tuesday night in this division, it’s very normal. It’s about being robust and resilient.
“You’ll see it happen to every team in the fight for the play-offs, and even in the automatic promotion race. It’s about how strong you are in those moments.
“To be where we are is a great thing.”
The Sky Blues head into this weekend’s fixture sixth in the Championship table while Sunderland sit fourth.
And Lampard admits his side must believe in themselves ahead of a tough tun of matches which includes games against title-chasing Sheffield United and Burnley.
Lampard added: “We have to believe.
“We’ve shown in our form since I have been here that we are competing with the top teams, in points and performance, so now it’s time to go head-to-head with a few of them.
“If you look at the teams who have come down from the Premier League and the power they have to add to their squad, not so many teams can get promotion without those parachute payments.
“That’s an obvious conversation that I know people have but we work with what we’ve got as well as we can to try to bridge the gap.
“Since I have been here we have competed on that level. It’s important to try to trust in that and continue that work.”
Coventry host Sunderland on Saturday, March 15 with kick-off at 3pm at the Coventry Building Society Arena.
