Frank Lampard pleased to see Coventry come through ‘good test’ against Blackburn

Frank Lampard felt Coventry’s 2-0 win over Blackburn was a “good test for all of us” as his side reclaimed top spot in the Sky Bet Championship.

The Sky Blues were knocked off top spot by Middlesbrough on Friday night and did not have things all their own way against Rovers, but Victor Torp and Brandon Thomas-Asante scored in a three-minute second-half window to secure a fourth win in a row.

Lampard said: “I think it was all credit to Blackburn in the first half. They came here with an aggressive organisation about them and were happy to be man-for-man pretty much all over the pitch.

“They made it difficult for us to get our usual kind of clean build and to try and get control and territory and stuff, so I credit them.

“We made a bit of a tactical tweak at half-time to help the players and it did help, and I think it’s important also for our players to not expect that every game we’ll have all the possession and win by three, four or five because it doesn’t happen in football.

“It was a good test for all of us, and even the fans, to understand that it’s not always easy. Stick with us, it was very good to not be at your best and then to go and score two big goals.

“Sometimes you rely on your players to do things like that, and Carl Rushworth to make a great save in the first half.

“I thought we actually saw the game out pretty comfortably, so lots of things to be happy with in a really tough match.”

Blackburn head coach Valerien Ismael rued his side’s missed first-half chances but chose to look at the positives of the performance.

Ismael said: “We were on the front foot, aggressive, high press. We did well, we created a lot of chances to score.

“It’s frustrating because the performance was right – good effort, great mentality, adaptable, flexible. We changed the shape, so it’s the story of the season so far that game.

“The performance is always right, we should have more from the game and at the end we end up losing.

“I think the first goal is avoidable. It’s a free-kick so they played quick, instead of us standing in front of the ball to slow down the process.

“We were not aware for one second and we got punished straight away. The second goal came too quick, to give you that feeling first to deal with the shock to be 2-0 down from nothing and to try to come back into the game.

“To concede the goal within two minutes and to lose the game like that is relentless and how football can be, but we take the positivity from the game and we go again.

“There’s two things that are important for a manager in football – you have to win games and the performance has to be right.

“I would have been more worried if we are not performing and losing games, but at the end of the day at some point you have to win games because you are judged on that.”