Frank Lampard hailed Jamie Paterson after the Coventry-born winger scored his first goal for the Sky Blues to lift them back into the Sky Bet Championship play-off places.
Paterson joined the Sky Blues on a free transfer in February after leaving MLS side Charlotte in August and his sumptuous volley earned Lampard’s side a last-gasp 1-0 victory over Portsmouth.
Coventry dropped out of the top six after back-to-back losses to promotion chasers Burnley and Sheffield United but Wednesday’s victory lifted them above Middlesbrough and into sixth place.
Lampard said afterwards: “The technical nature of the goal was amazing. Great skill and great agility and finish – amazing.
“And the story of ‘Patto’ himself being a Coventry fan as a kid to being without a club, coming and training with us and earning a contract.
“He’s been brilliant around the group, on and off the pitch, and he’s a quality player, so I am delighted that I brought him on.
“I know he can score, he’s done it throughout his career, but that level of goal in that moment, I think it’s a collective one for the stadium, the players and the fans because we have shown that this group has got character.
“We have shown it a few times this season and we pushed and pushed against a really difficult opponent, it’s an edgy night for us and we started to feel that.
“We didn’t play at our best, Portsmouth didn’t allow us to, but we showed incredible character to push in the second half and got what we deserved.
“You score a goal, the fans erupt and the players are excited and their fans are distraught. We had it at Norwich so I feel for them tonight.
“But for us, it just shows at the moment the club is very, very together. And we need to keep going with that.”
Portsmouth boss John Mousinho admitted his side fell short as their away woes continued. Pompey have taken just 10 points on the road this season, winning just twice away from Fratton Park.
He said: “It was a really difficult one because the difference between me going into the dressing room and saying what a really good point away from home and where we are now is obviously stark, and it’s just 10 seconds of football.
“93 minutes and 50 seconds of really good football and 10 seconds of madness. But we have to be realistic about that, we can’t have those moments in games where we make really poor decisions because the poor decision ends up in the back of the net.
“They gave everything but unfortunately we’re falling short and that’s the most frustrating thing.
“I think in the last three away games where we’ve come away conceding in 85 plus minutes it’s not a fitness issue, it’s not like we look like we’re dead on our feet, we put the work in and we put some really, really solid performances in.
“I think there’s a couple who have let us down tonight but for the most part (it’s) just an excellent performance. (It) should have been an excellent away performance, we could have nicked it at the end.
“It is agony, it’s going to be, there’s been so many games this year where we’ve come away from home and we’ve been beaten. Tonight’s just one of those, it blows my mind we’ve put ourselves in that position to have to defend from that point.”
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- 4 Mikel Arteta ready to give his life to deliver silverware for Arsenal
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- 7 Mikel Arteta apologises for failing to deliver Arsenal a Premier League title
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