Frank Lampard praised all of his Coventry players after a brace from Jack Rudoni sealed a 2-0 win over Middlesbrough and a place in the Championship play-offs.
The Sky Blues will now face stuttering Sunderland over two legs – a phenomenal effort given that Lampard’s team were struggling in 17th when he took over as boss from Mark Robins before Christmas.
Lampard said: “I loved it today, but it was so tense at times. Our performance was brilliant in the first half, though Middlesbrough had their chances.
“We stayed focused though, and I really felt the power of us in the second half. We were brilliant on the counter-attack and showed great desire to defend our box.
“We knew what we had to do, we knew what the challenge was and the players showed me that they were ready for that challenge.
“The players deserve so much credit, given where we’ve come from, but we’ve got what we deserve, for sure.
“I’m excited for the play-offs now, it’s been a long week before this game and now we can look forward to another huge challenge.
“We’ll be respectful of Sunderland, it’s going to be really tough in both games against them, but we know we’ve got massive quality in our squad and we can’t wait for Friday.”
It was Boro who probably shaded a goalless first 43 minutes at a packed-out CBS Arena.
However, at that point the hosts broke the deadlock when Rudoni rose highest to head home a super cross from Tatsuhiro Sakamoto.
Both sides struck the woodwork in the second period, before Rudoni bagged his second goal late on to send the home fans wild.
Boro ended the campaign in 10th place – a huge disappointment for their fans following an inconsistent second half of the season.
Boss Michael Carrick reflected on a game and a season where they just did not have enough.
“It’s an awful feeling – there’s no getting away from it,” said Carrick. “The disappointment among the group is huge. I think you could see that after the game.
“We’re all so deflated and hurt, and we all care so much about this football club. I couldn’t have asked any more from the players – I thought they played really well.
“Conceding the first goal just before half-time gave Coventry something to hold on to, though we came out in the second half and played well in so many ways.
“We had opportunities, hit the woodwork and their keeper was making saves, but then we’ve been caught on a breakaway at the end.
“This one game wasn’t the story of the season though, looking back on it as a whole, we’ve just come up a little bit short.
“We wanted a little bit more of course, but without doubt the lads will learn a lot from this experience.”
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