Frank Lampard says Championship title is ‘right at top of my career’

Frank Lampard hailed a “great night” as Coventry wrapped up the Sky Bet Championship title with an emphatic 5-1 victory over Portsmouth.

Ephron Mason-Clark scored a brace while top scorer Haji Wright and Kaine Kesler-Hayden also got on the scoresheet.

Regan Poole’s own goal compounded Portsmouth’s misery as Coventry, who were already promoted after beating Blackburn on Friday, made it 90 league goals for the season.

“It was just a great night,” began Lampard. “It was so nice because we had the jeopardy of Friday night, which in a weird way was great the way we did it.

“That was amazing in its own right, this is amazing in its own right. This is what I really, really wanted because we led the table for so long and pushed on this second half of the season as it’s gone on.

“That takes a really strong unit and a strong group and they’ve shown that.

“It’s right at the top of my career. I said it after Blackburn and to seal the title in the manner that we did, the way the team played from minute one, how we stepped it up in the second half.

“We’ve had a lot of these performances at the CBS (Arena) this year, this team has been so consistent. The last few weeks have been challenging in a way because of the pressure, because we’re not used to this and we’ve got the results we needed recently to get us promoted.

“When you get this close, to go and do it with two games to spare is incredible, because this league gets harder.

“All the teams here give you different challenges in this league and these players have got 27 wins, it’s amazing what they’ve done.”

Despite their heavy defeat, Pompey manager John Mousinho was relieved that his side’s survival was confirmed after Oxford’s loss to Wrexham.

Mousinho said: “You can’t sum up everything because it’s such a strange night. For 45 minutes I thought we were fine, we conceded from a set-piece which was really poor but it was very tight, we didn’t have a huge amount going forward.

“As soon as we gave them that leg up in the second half it was total domination, we couldn’t get near Coventry. They’re a good side at the best of times, when you give them a leg up on a night they’ve already been promoted, they can become champions, they are outstanding.

“I thought athletically, completed dominated us all over the pitch, technically they’re brilliant if you look at (Matt) Grimes dropping in and causing the problems he did.

“For anybody who looks at Championship football, they’re an extremely good side, the best side we’ve played against this season by a long way, fully deserve to be champions.

“The second part of it is a huge amount of relief and to be honest, in a strange way I’m delighted that we’ve stayed in the league. If you’d have offered me this at any point of the season, say October onwards, I’d have snapped your hand off.

“To do what we’ve done over the past six games (winning three and drawing two) has been remarkable.”