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Here’s Dom Booth’s report from Ewood Park.
Lampard speaks: “Incredible moment, you worry, you worry, the power of the header. It’s what it’s about. It’s not easy. To get it over the line after 25 years, wow. Now they get this moment. This incedible fanbase and what it means to this city. To come in 15 months ago, Mark Robins had done an incredible job.”
Frank gets emotional as he pays tribute to “incredible” players. “I’m proud of myself, the staff, and myself. We went into the unknown, we have fallen in love. I was fortunate to be in great Chelsea teams….but to overachieve, no disrespect to these players…I looked at Coventry and saw the job Mark Robins had done. The resilience to come back again.
“It’s such a good feeling the lads have got it over the line. Evetything I have done in my career has been a point to prove. It’s quite stressful. I’ve got much more balance. When you trust the players it’s much easier. Those boys have sorted things out for themselves. They deserve to have a beer. We want to go and do it for them. We want to say from July 1 to the end we got it spot on.”
That was quite an interview. He really meant it, catch it on the socials if you can.
Frank Lampard, with huge smile, enjoys the moment with fans, revving them up with Klopp-style fist pumps. That long journey down the M6 will be full of smiles.
Bobby Thomas, Coventry folk hero, speaks: “Amazing. Amazing that. It’s been a, a couple of a project, the last 3 seasons, the team we’ve got, we’ve got a few editions on the way, and feel like we deserve, as well.
Matt Grimes, captain, speaks too: “so yeah, no, just brilliant brilliant.”
The Coventry players run to their fans, with owner Doug King looking on. He’s brought the Premier League back to his home town. “We’re going up,” say the banners.
Gary Weaver on Sky has gone into excelcis: “It enriches lives. it changes lives. a story of resistance, resilience and ultimately of renaissance>”
Final score: Blackburn 1-1 Coventry
Coventry are back in the Premier League after 25 years of absence. What a journey it’s been, from despair to there. It’s not been easy, Blackburn have been excellent but the job is done. Well done, Frank Lampard and team.
90+3 min: Blackburn give it a go, no longer so secure in that battle at the bottom. All hands to the Cov pump as they seek to see it out.
90+1 min: Five minutes to be added on. They may feel longer than five minutes. Frank Lampard tries to calm things down on the sidelines.
90 min: Coventry win a corner, and take their time. Josh Eccles comes on, a Cov lad himself, to kill time and enjoy the final moments of destiny being reached.
89 min: Rovers paid for sitting back, as was always likely. Coventry stepped it up, too, to be even-handed. Suddenly, the action isn’t so frantic.
87 min: Some lovely footage of fans back in Coventry going wild. The club of Mick Gynn, Mick Ferguson, Dave Bennett, Youssef Chippo, Roland Nilsson and Steve Ogrizovic is heading back to the Premier League.
86 min: The pyro is burning in the Coventry end, and the name of Bobby Thomas rings out, the player who Blackburn’s goal deflected from.
Goal! Blackburn 1-1 Coventry (Thomas, 85)
Free-kick to Coventry, in a dangerous area. Raptures result when Bobby Thomas nods in from Torp’s free-kick.
82 min: Toth, the Blackburn keeper, catches the ball, and lies on it for too long. He timewastes, and gets a yellow card. And also a corner for Cov. You don’t see that in the Premier League. To Lancastrian relief, Coventry’s corner is poor.
80 min: Haji Wright hauled back for handball. No complaints from him. Coventry have been worringly submissive.
79 min: Rovers change, Gardner-Hickman is replaced by the experience of Adam Forshaw, once of Leeds in the Premier League.
77 min: Cashin has been another star man for the Rovers. They shall not pass. Haji Wright gets a half-chance but ends up scuffing it. A severe lack of end product is not helping.
76 min: There’s time to rescue this for Cov but they need to do far better. Those subs brought a change of formation.
74 min: The Cov contingent are quietened but Mason-Clark takes a couple of efforts, the second way off target. There’s some agony among those away fans.
73 min: Rovers have made a sub, Ryan Hedges coming on for Moussa Baradji, Hedges back from a broken leg, is right into the action.
71 min: That’s Rudoni’s last touch, as he’s replaced by Thomas-Asante. Lampard smells a way back in.
70 min: Mason-Clark threatens but Cashin clears him out…then, ooof, Rudoni rattles the post, his header coming back out. Haji Wright is offside from the rebound.
69 min: Perhaps Coventry’s best hope is Blackburn deciding to sit on their lead as until then, the various duels are being won by Rovers.
67 min: Alebiosu has been outsanding. Another lung-bursting run causes all kinds of trouble, as does his cross. Blackburn remain much the better team here.
66 min: Mason-Clark gets space, the ball goes across to Esse, but his incursion comes quickly to an end.
65 min: Gardner-Hickman has been booked, having been so busy in midfield.
64 min: Haji Wright is quickly involved, and Blackburn have to hurry the ball clear. It eventually ends up landing on the top of the net.
62 min: Three changes, Simms off, Haji Wright on; Onyeka off for Torp; Latibeaudiere off, Esse on.
61 min: Thomas makes a fine block, and needs to as Alebiosu puts in another of those dangerous crosses. Coventry are equally nervous at the resultant corner. Long hoik to Rudoni come to nothing.
Dominic Booth
60 min: More from Dom Booth at Ewood: “If Blackburn were going to get a goal it was always going to come through a combination of Morishita and Alebiosu. Both have been excellent on the hosts’ right flank and Coventry can’t complain it wasn’t coming. I suspect Lampard will turn to his bench in search of a response – the Sky Blues two top scorers, Haji Wright and Brandon Thomas-Asante, are sitting there waiting to be called upon. “We are staying up,” sing the home faithful.”
57 min: What can Coventry find now? They’ve been second best, and now Frank Lampard must be considering changes. Three at the back doesn’t seem to have worked.
55 min: That Milky song being sung by Rovers fans now. Everyone’s got their version.
Goal! Blackburn 1-0 Coventry (Morishita, 54)
Panic for Coventry as a corner is cleared, and Morishita gallops away. The ball seems to be cleared and then Alebiosu – again – is involved. Morishita shoots, there’s a deflection off Bobby Thomas and the promotion party is on hold.
52 min: The Coventry fans are singing a song to the tune of Just The Way You Are” by Milky. Football songs get camper, don’t they?
51 min: Ructions as Onyeka and Ribeiro square up. The money’s down on Onyeka.
49 min: Coventry looking much livelier. Mason-Clark tries to make something happen before Grimes’ cross is cleared.
47 min: No half-time changes, by the way. An early glimmer, as Ribeiro makes a mistakes, as Van Ewijk’s cross comes in, and it takes a fine block on Simms from McLoughlin.
46 min: Back away we go at Ewood Park. Far better required from Coventry, that’s for sure. They’re now attacking their fans. Will that bring about any improvement?
Half-time: Blackburn 0-0 Coventry
Job half-done but not done at all well by Coventry. Rovers really should be leading and there’s work to do to claim the point that Cov need.
45+2 min: Wow, Rovers go so close, and it takes Latibeaudiere’s backside to block what is a goalbound shot from Morishita. Alebiosu has been excellent down the Rovers’ right flank. That’s the last of the half.
45 min: The aforementioned Rudoni’s free-kick, an attempt to get a cross in, is awful. Dear me. This has been nervy.
44 min: A rare Coventry sortie, DaSilva and Mason-Clark involved, the latter knocking wide when the ball drops low for him from a decent cross. They could have done with that Rudoni shot being far better. That’s as good as it’s got.
43 min: Rancour as Ribeiro is fouled, and the ball is called dead when Rovers were in a decent position. Then Morishita wants a throw-in, and is right to ask for it.
Dominic Booth
42 min: More from Dom Booth at Ewood: “The game has drifted into a bit of a lull, perhaps with Coventry safe in the knowledge a draw is good enough to seal promotion and Blackburn content with a point to aid their survival campaign. It has actually been the hosts who have been better in the middle portion of this first half; I’ve been particularly impressed with Ryoya Morishita, who is playing in the right No 10 position in O’Neill’s 3-4-3. Blackburn need to get the ball right to him and Ryan Alebiosu, whose crosses have asked questions of Coventry’s defence. All it takes is one Blackburn goal to wreak worry within the visiting ranks.”
40 min: Long ball out wide aimed for DaSilva, and jeers from the home crowd when the ball runs out.
38 min: Perhaps eyeing a Lampard pep talk, Coventry are passing the ball round in defence. But then they try to hurry it up, and are again offside. Frank Lampard is muttering away to his assistant, Joe Edwards, another Chelsea alumnus.
36 min: Were Blackburn to have a bit more quality in the final third, then they could be out of sight. Coventry are struggling here.
34 min: Blackburn continue to impress. Considering their injuries it’s amazing they are in such trouble. Morishita causes sincere trouble down the inside left position, and it takes Van Ewijk’s fine tackle to stop him meeting a loose ball.
