Coventry stepped up and did the job on the final day of the Championship season, securing a spot in the playoffs with victory over a Middlesbrough side who never abandoned their hopes of promotion until the final whistle blew on a captivating contest.
A brace for Coventry’s all-action playmaker Jack Rudoni earned the three points that confirmed a two-legged encounter with Sunderland that begins next week. For Sky Blues manager Frank Lampard, who joined in November when the club was in 17th position and two points off the relegation places, it is an unlikely achievement that has also rehabilitated his managerial reputation.
Rudoni made the breakthrough with time running down in the opening half and the crowd beginning to get restless. Pulling back from his marker on the edge of Boro’s six-yard box he made the room to connect sweetly with a lofted cross from Tatsuhiro Sakamoto and place a downward header past Mark Travers.
There was delight on the field, and a sense of relief off it, as Coventry had been made to work for their advantage. Indeed, the home side’s early grip on the game had been sufficiently loosened for Middlesbrough to look the more dangerous side before Rudoni’s timely intervention.
The opening 10 minutes of the match had seen a succession of chances for Lampard’s side. Sakomoto was at the heart of much of the action, his ability to shift on to either foot and vary his delivery troubling full-back Neto Borges and Boro’s centre-halves alike. Ellis Simms flashed a volley just past Travers’ post in the second minute, while Rudoni could have opened his account nine minutes in only to blast a Sakomoto cutback over.
Boro adapted to the onslaught. They became more compact, more decisive in their attempts to secure possession. They also started to find Tommy Conway and Morgan Whittaker on the break. The duo’s ability to move the ball upfield and hold on to it created chances for Samuel Iling-Junior and then Finn Azaz, whose feathered strike was turned on to the post by Ben Wilson. The noise in the Coventry Arena was dropping and doubts were rising among the home support. But then Rudoni struck.
While recent form had seen Michael Carrick’s side losing three of their previous five matches, a run symbolic of a turbulent season, they remained in promotion contention and their efforts were not about to cease with 45 minutes to go. They came out and attacked the second half as Coventry had the first, Azaz a dynamic presence in the number 10 role, and it was the Irish international who nearly equalised on the hour mark with a fierce drive that Wilson did well to get down to block.
Lampard has won plaudits for the way he has galvanized this Coventry side after their early struggles this season, and for the free-scoring football that has been their hallmark. The Sky Blues manager was also forced to display his tactical ability here though, his intervention with 20 minutes to go stemming a rising red tide.
The switch of Brandon Thomas-Asante for Simms seemed a case of like-for-like as he shifted into Haji Wright’s left-hand berth in the Coventry attack. But Thomas-Asante’s fresh legs and extra acceleration were deployed differently, the home side abandoning a more deliberate approach and regularly lofting the ball over the Boro backline to force Dael Fry into a foot race he could not win.
Asante-Thomas had got behind several times, and had also seen a goal-bound shot blocked from six yards out, by the time he came up against Fry again with six minutes to go and forced his way beyond the towering defender and in on goal. Rudoni was quick enough to react and join his teammate and when Thomas-Asante found the right cut-back, the 23-year-old held off a challenge and turned the ball home.
That was enough for the Coventry fans who were up on their feet and celebrating. A second successive playoff battle awaits and they are a team in form.
