Frank Lampard hails ‘outstanding’ performance as Coventry remain unbeaten

Frank Lampard hailed Coventry’s performance as “outstanding” after the Sky Blues saw off 10-man Birmingham 3-0 to extend their unbeaten start to the Championship season.

Brandon Thomas-Asante opened the scoring in the first half before Jack Robinson was sent off for a second bookable offence, just before the break for the visitors.

Coventry took full advantage as a Bright Osayi-Samuel own goal was followed by Victor Torp’s fifth goal of the campaign to round off the win.

Lampard said: “The performance was outstanding, every part of the game – 11 v 11, 11 v 10, the focus of the group, the work ethic, the desire to compete in challenges and duels against a strong team.

“We knew we had to compete in this game because they’re physically good and we matched that completely.

“A high-pressing team, but we made it hard for them to press us and we could play at good times and get control of the game.

“Then when they went down to 10 men, we played deep in their half and kept doing the right things, getting it down the sides and we got our goals.

“Lots of things we had to manage, the lads managed it well on the pitch.

“When we’re winning the ball back we’re counter pressing and we’re going at speed. There’s a feeling that when there’s a moment, we have to be at it and ready to go.

“Brandon (Thomas-Asante) is really hungry and sharp at the minute. He smelt it and he gets a good goal.

“If you want to succeed in this league you have to have big physicality and capacity. Since we’ve been in, that’s one of the things we’ve worked on a lot and it’s really grown.”

Birmingham head coach Chris Davies bemoaned Robinson’s two yellow cards that saw the Blues defender sent off after 42 minutes, but admitted his side dealt with their disadvantage poorly.

Davies said: “First half an hour, I thought the game was very tight. I thought there was very little in it. I thought we looked a threat.

“We conceded a goal from a long throw that we should have done better on but I could see as the half went on that we were going to grow even more into the game.

“Then the two yellow cards obviously impacted where we went from there – I thought they were harsh.

“We’ve had a game today where the decisive moment has come from us losing a player and the frustration for me is that we’ve had multiple examples of their players kicking the ball away in the first half and not receiving cautions.

“When you get one yellow card, you always run the risk. If you kick a ball away blatantly in front of the referee and don’t get booked for it, you can carry on doing it.

“We’re down a player, but the first 20-25 minutes, if we don’t concede a goal it’s basically the number one objective.

“Stay solid and as the game wears on we’ll get opportunities and the pressure will turn a little bit.

“But to concede that goal in the fashion that we did was very, very disappointing at that time because all we had to do was stay solid and wait until the final stages.”