FRANK Lampard wants to see a reaction from his Coventry City side after a 2-0 defeat at Derby County brought an end to the Sky Blues’ five-game winning run.
Coventry suffered their first away defeat since January at Pride Park as goals from Matt Clarke and Marcus Harness saw City lose for the first time in six matches.
And Lampard insists how his side respond to the defeat is the most important thing with City to host play-off rivals Sunderland this weekend.
Lampard said: “We were going to lose at some point and these are a team who are fighting, they’re direct, they have the ball in the air a lot and they put a lot of focus on set pieces.
“They made that count and we gave them the lead after starting in control. We gave them something to hang on to
“They didn’t give us any space behind, which is normal when you’re facing a team like this, and the goals were always going to be critical in a game like this.
“We didn’t want to concede the types of goals that we did, and we’ve been pretty good at not doing that in the time that I have been here, so it affects the game – obviously.
“Having been on the run that we’re on, I am not too down of despondent. It was not an application problem, it’s just a game that has gone against us.
“How we react will be as important as anything.”
Derby broke the deadlock on 23 minutes when Clarke headed in Harness’s free-kick from the right from eight-yards out.
And Derby doubled their lead just three minutes after half time when Harness volleyed the ball through the legs of Oliver Dovin from six-yards out.
Sky Blues head coach Lampard handed forward Haji Wright his first start since November against the Rams.
And Lampard hopes Wright can play a big part in City’s final nine games of the season.
Lampard added: “[The game] will have been great for Haji. It was a tough game for him, given the kind of player that he is, but the time he spent on the pitch tonight will help him as he comes back.
“He’s been out for a while and he is a big player for us. It will do him the world of good.
“We need to stay balanced. We all get excited when you climb from where we have climbed from. We just need to keep going and keep working on ourselves as a team.
“The lads are a good bunch here and they’ve shown that in the last 10 games. It’s important now that they keep showing that.
“The reaction now will be as important and that’s all we can control.”
Coventry entertain Sunderland on Saturday, March 15 with kick-off at 3pm at the Coventry Building Society Arena.
