An emotional Frank Lampard fought back tears after Coventry City sealed promotion to the Premier League on Friday.
The Sky Blues boss choked up during a post-match interview following his side’s 1-1 draw at Blackburn Rovers, which gave them the point they needed to secure their return to the top flight for the first time in 25 years.
Defender Bobby Thomas was the hero on the night as his 84th-minute equaliser sent the 7,500 travelling fans into delirium at Ewood Park.
Former Chelsea and England star Lampard, 47, told Sky Sports: ‘It’s amazing. The fanbase, what they’ve gone through, the disappointments, the moments.’
His voice then cracked before he added: ‘To get a promotion with a non-parachute club, to see the boys there, it makes me emotional. They’re so great to work with. They deserve every moment of celebrating.
‘I’m proud. I’m proud of myself and the staff. We went into a bit of an unknown. We’ve fallen in love with the players and the fanbase, how they reacted. It’s right up there with what I’ve achieved – and I’ve won Champions Leagues with Chelsea.
‘But here we’re overachieving. Automatic promotion wasn’t in our plan.’
Lampard, who lives in a £10million mansion in London with wife Christine, 47, said his players would celebrate on Friday night before going for the Championship title.
‘When I looked at Coventry I saw a club Mark [Robins] had done fantastic work with and I looked at the squad and thought there were players there we could work with,’ he said.
‘The resilience to come back after losing in the play-offs… We spoke in the summer about what we could do this season and whether we could finish third or fourth to get a home play-off in the second game which we didn’t do last year.
‘It’s such a good feeling that the boys have managed to get it over the line.
‘Everything I’ve ever done has been a bit of a point to prove. I’m lucky I have that ingrained.
‘I had my moments and I think the trick of being a manager is you’ve got to walk out with a calm demeanour as a manager but it’s easier when you trust the players.
‘I’ve got players like Jake Bidwell and Jamie Allen who haven’t played every week but they’ve been the biggest voices in the dressing room.
‘The players can have a couple of beers on the way home but they’ve got to get the job done now.
‘I let them have a bit of a party after the Sheffield Wednesday game on Saturday because it was basically done then but I had the hump with them on Tuesday and Wednesday when they didn’t train well.
‘We want to go and get it done now. If we play how we have done the rest of the season we will be fine. We want to sustain it now.’
Coventry were beaten by Luton in the 2023 Championship play-off final and lost to Sunderland in dramatic fashion in the semi-finals last season.
But they will be a Premier League club again in the 2026-27 campaign as the draw at Blackburn was enough to guarantee them an automatic promotion place.
Broadcaster Richard Keys, a lifelong Coventry fan who was born in the city, revelled in his team’s achievement in a post on social media.
‘Well done guys @Coventry_City but that was harder than it should’ve been,’ Keys wrote.
‘Next – the title. Travelling support was fantastic again. I’m chuffed to bits it was Bobby Thomas that nailed it. But everyone was a hero. Super Frank deserves enormous credit.’
Keys, 68, then posted a picture of him holding a glass of wine while watching coverage of the post-match celebrations with the caption ‘amazing, have a good night lads’, before adding a hashtag of #PUSB and three sky blue heart emojis.
The former Sky Sports presenter will get the chance to watch his hometown club in person next season after moving back to the UK to be with his 37-year-old wife, Lucie Rose, for the first time since they married.
Keys has been living in Doha after 13 years working for beIN Sports, but is leaving the channel along with Andy Gray at the end of the season. He moved to Qatar in 2013, two years after their Sky Sports exit in the wake of a sexism scandal.
Thomas, whose header six minutes from time will go down in Coventry folklore, said: ‘It’s been a hell of a season and it’s been a project over the last three seasons and I feel like we deserve it.
‘We can’t drop our level now. We need to get the points we need to get the title.’
