Coventry City vs Sheffield Wednesday: The Manager's Corner
Coventry City won promotion back to the Premier League, but Sheffield Wednesday did put their champagne on ice for a bit longer. Frank Lampard was complimentary.
Coventry went on to secure a top-flight return after a quarter of a century thanks to a last-gasp Portsmouth goal, but they weren’t able to celebrate anything with their own fans due to a dogged Owls display that resulted in a 0-0 draw.
The former Chelsea boss had plenty to say about Wednesday and their manager, Henrik Pedersen, after the final whistle - praising the job that’s been done at Hillsborough.
Here’s some of what the two men in charge had to say:
Frank Lampard
“He’s dealt with things that are human things as well as football things around a club, which is a fantastic football club,” the Sky Blues boss told The Star. “I understand the pressures of that and the demands of it. He’s kept trying to play and act with a really positive attitude…
“He celebrated a draw today. Normally I would kind of go, ‘All right’, but with him, he can definitely celebrate a draw because they’re working really hard against a lot of odds.
“I know how hard this job is for anyone, so I respect exactly what he’s done. Fair play to him, I wish him well for what he’s done this year. I think he should take a lot of personal credit.
“Sheffield Wednesday, like us, have an incredible fan base and a history. So I believe they will come back round, but I’m sure there are some tough moments to come within that.”
Henrik Pedersen
Meanwhile, the Owls boss said, “We came here to take something. We want to have points, we want to win football games. The confidence the players went onto the pitch with was strong. And this togetherness and this intensity, the show was amazing.
“We also had the courage when we won the ball, not only to kick the ball away, but to try to play. And we also had some good transitions…
“The fans were amazing again today and I think the boys were amazing too. You could see the boys were really, really tired, but the fans here, our fantastic fans, helped the boys. It was fantastic.
“The cocktail between them was amazing, so I will remember this day as a really good away game.”