FRANK Lampard insists the feeling generated by the Coventry City supporters inspired his side a last gasp victory against Stoke.
A 97th minute goal from Bobby Thomas earned the Sky Blues a fifth straight league win after Victor Torp had earlier netted a brace at the Coventry Building Society Arena.
And with more than 30,000 fans packed inside the CBS Arena, Lampard praised the home supporters for generating a raucous atmosphere while showing respect to former Sky Blues boss Mark Robins.
Lampard said: “The fans have been great, it’s a two-way thing, we have to perform and play with passion and quality to excite them.
“From coming in, you could feel it was a difficult moment for the club but it was an amazing atmosphere from start to finish.
“It was respectful to Mark for what he’s done but behind the team and celebrating with the team at the end.
“When the stadium sells out and they make the noise they make they add to the difficulty for the opposition.
“It adds to the feeling that we can keep going until the 97th minute to get a winning goal, it a real collective feeling.”
Thomas lashed a shot into the bottom right corner deep into injury time and celebrated with Lampard on the pitch as City secured a ninth win from their last 10 league matches.
That came after Torp headed in Milan van Ewijk’s long throw from the right to open the scoring on 22 minutes.
And Torp doubled City’s lead on 31 minutes with a cool finish into the bottom left corner after running into Tatsuhiro Sakamoto’s pass in the box.
However, Stoke halved the deficit on 65 minutes when Wouter Burger squared the ball to substitute Sam Gallagher who finished into an empty net from close range.
And the Potters drew level four minutes from time as Gallagher hedead in Million Manhoef’s free-kick from six-yards out despite suspicions of offside.
However, there was still time for a late twist as Stoke failed to deal with a cross from the left and Thomas shifted the ball onto his left foot before lashing a shot past Viktor Johansson at the death.
The result leaves the Sky Blues fifth in the Championship table and Lampard admits a run of nine wins in 10 league games has changed the course of their season.
Lampard added: “It was a big challenge with the surroundings of the game and Mark coming back.
“We know what a few wins does in this league, but nine wins out of 10 has changed the face of our season.
“It’s hard to do it, you can’t produce beautiful performances every week, we’re on a run which is very good.
“The next step is continuing it because there’s always something around the corner.”
Coventry are next in action against Derby County on Tuesday, March 11 with kick-off at 7.45pm at Pride Park.
