Frank Lampard will not let Coventry get carried away as winning run continues

Frank Lampard is determined for Coventry to keep their feet on the ground after extending their lead at the top of the Championship with a 4-2 win over Middlesbrough.

Ellis Simms and Liam Kitching both scored braces as the Sky Blues recovered from throwing away a two-goal lead to beat the team who started the day in second with two late strikes.

Coventry are now 10 points clear at the summit after a fourth straight win, but Lampard is determined not to get too carried away.

“We keep doing what we’re doing, it’s so early in the season still,” he said.

“We see the league. No one’s stupid. There’s good teams around us.

“Ipswich and Southampton and these teams, we know they can go on big runs because they were in the Premier League last year and were working at a different level to us.

“What we’re trying to do is do our thing…take the confidence from what we’re doing at the moment, but keep our feet on the ground and understand what got us to this place and try to continue it.”

The Sky Blues went ahead with two goals in the opening 15 minutes as Simms hit a stunning top-corner finish before Kitching nodded home.

Boro replied through Morgan Whittaker and levelled minutes into the second half when Bobby Thomas turned the ball into his own net.

An entertaining clash saw Coventry have the final say when Kitching struck in the 85th minute and one minute later Simms wrapped up a 12th league win.

Simms has struggled for regular game time this season but in back-to-back starts he has scored three times. And his first goal on Teesside delighted his boss.

Lampard said: “You can’t take anything away from Ellis’ finish. We all watch a lot of football at a top level. You see that finish, you’re comparing that to some great players who can finish like that.

“I’m delighted for Ellis to do that. He’s had to bide his time. Now we really need him to perform like that, to score those goals. That’s a special first goal and a striker’s second.”

The defeat sees Boro drop into third in the table, 10 points behind Coventry.

But interim boss Adi Viveash, who will now hand the reins over to new head coach Kim Hellberg, knows it could have been different had Tommy Conway not missed from close range with the score at 2-2.

Viveash said: “That five-minute spell – from our great chance at 2-2 and they get the third, we’re disappointed with the fourth as well because you’re still in the game at 3-2 – that was a bit of a sucker punch.

“I thought it was a high-quality, Championship-level game. I don’t think Coventry disappointed.

“I thought we more than played our part in it. We had some key moments at times and had some strong periods in it.

“The key moments didn’t go our way and they took advantage of our frailties at certain times.

“We’re disappointed with all four goals. You can’t concede four goals in any Championship game.”