Frank Lampard feels Coventry point against Norwich ‘was the least we deserved’

Coventry head coach Frank Lampard felt his players eventually got what they deserved as they left it very late to rescue a 1-1 draw against Norwich.

The Sky Blues dominated most of the proceedings at the Coventry Building Society Arena but looked set to have nothing to show for it following Mathias Kvistgaarden’s first goal for the Canaries.

In looking to complete what would have been a smash-and-grab raid, the visitors slowed the game down whenever possible, with three of their players being booked for time-wasting.

However, their spoiling tactics cost them in the end as Haji Wright – one of several Coventry players to have a wasteful afternoon – scrambled in an equaliser in the sixth minute of stoppage time.

Lampard said: “I thought it was the least we deserved. We played absolutely fantastic against a good team.

“Norwich are a very good team, they’ve got good players, they recruited in the summer other good players, [they’ve got] a good coach and we dominated every part of the game.

“Of course, they get their goal, had some breakaway moments – very rare – but everything we wanted out of our team we got; 28 shots, a lot of the possession and expected goals, all that stuff, and it was absolutely the least we deserved.

“It is frustrating (the time-wasting) but it is football, so it’s for the referee to deal with that and for us to keep our heads.

“I thought our players kept their heads very well, they kept playing, didn’t get overly frustrated because some things were pretty clear today that were going on.

“On another day, you score three or four goals, that’s clear, so they were absolutely on it, the players.”

Coventry started on top and almost led after five minutes when Ephron Mason-Clark’s diving header from Tatsuhiro Sakamoto’s ball into the box struck a post.

Against the run of play, Norwich took the lead in the 17th minute when Jakov Medic played the ball through for Kvistgaarden, who finished into the bottom corner.

The Sky Blues piled on the pressure in the last half-hour with Wright wasting two clear chances before Norwich goalkeeper Vladan Kovacevic’s reaction save denied Brandon Thomas-Asante.

The equaliser finally arrived deep into added time after Milan van Ewijk dispossessed Harry Darling in the Norwich area, with Kovacevic saving from Ellis Simms before Wright forced in the rebound.

Norwich boss Liam Manning said: “Naturally, when you get so close to nearly nicking three points, we’re disappointed with the manner of the goal we conceded.

“But when you look at the performance, it was one of those where we weren’t quite at the level we needed be at – I thought they caused us some real problems.

“We defended too much, we didn’t manage the game well enough and when we got it back, we didn’t manage to keep it well enough.

“Having said that, I think we performed a lot, lot better when we’ve been at home and come away with nothing whereas today we weren’t where we need to be and we steal a point, which is Championship football.

“We’ve spoken before about what we would like when we’re not at our best and what we did show was a real fight, a real togetherness, a real desire to defend the box, which for the lads on a bad day is really important.”