FRANK LAMPARD admitted he had no expectation of guiding Coventry to the Championship play-offs when he took the job in November.

Lampard’s side will host Sunderland on Friday in the first leg of the semi-final, targeting a first return to the top flight since 2001, a dramatic turnaround from when Lampard arrived with the club two points from the relegation zone.

“We were 17th for a reason,” Lampard said. “This club’s had some really good success in moving up the leagues in recent years, reaching the play-off final [in 2023], the FA Cup semi-finals [last season]. So there’s great credit but this season we were not where we want to be.

“We were probably in a relegation fight at that point. So I didn’t expect it at all. But at the same I came in, I wanted to be confident in the squad. I wanted to make us better. And at that point it was how much better? How many steps can we take?

“The rest is down to a lot of people in the building. First of all the players, you can’t do anything without the players, but also the desire and passion of the ownership and everybody who works here at the training ground, and the fans who have really gone with us.”

Progress was initially slow with three wins in Lampard’s first nine in charge, a run including a 2-1 defeat at Norwich as Amankwah Forson scored two goals at the death to pinch the points for the Canaries. Lampard remembers it as a key moment in the season.

“I thought the players put in a really diligent, hardworking display,” he said. “We changed to a back five for the game, we were one up in the 91st minute and lost 2-1 and I drove home from that game disappointed because I’d seen the players really give everything.

“That was a moment of real determination, having seen the players were willing to fight. But at that point we were a million miles from where we are now. I didn’t drive back down the A12 to London thinking we would be in the play-offs.

“Then I think from that point on we went on our run of a lot of wins [nine of the next 10 in the league] and probably midway through that run, we started to move up the table and I started to speak much more about play-offs than what was behind us.”

Lampard has been down this road before, guiding Derby to the 2018/19 Championship play-off final where they lost to Aston Villa.

Key to preparation is making sure his players find the right balance of focus on the game, but also some nervous tension that recognises the potential prize on offer.

“Our job is to completely focus on the game in hand,” he said. “I don’t mind the players wanting to be Premier League players. They have to, otherwise they shouldn’t be here.

“So that’s a good thing, but we have to be very, very diligent and focused in what we want to do in the game plan tomorrow night, how we want to approach the game. That’s now the key, not to get any ideas of what may be too much in the future.”