And Lampard is expecting two legs packed with edge and bite having been quickly made aware of Coventry’s rivalry with the Black Cats, which dates back almost 50 years.
The Sky Blues beat Middlesbrough on the final day and climbed to fifth in the Championship after Bristol City could only draw with Preston, setting up a play-off semi-final with Sunderland.
As if there isn’t already enough at stake with a spot at Wembley on the line, there’s also the backdrop of a bitter rivalry which started at the end of the 1976/77 season.
On the final day of the season, Sunderland, Coventry and Bristol City were involved in a three-way battle for survival in Division One. The Black Cats were away at Everton, while Coventry and Bristol City played each other at Highfield Road knowing they had to better Sunderland’s result.
With that in mind, kick-off at Coventry was delayed by 15 minutes with Jimmy Hill, managing director at the time, citing traffic congestion as the cause.
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Sunderland lost at Everton and when news filtered through to Highfield Road, Coventry and Bristol City were level at 2-2. And that’s how it remained for the final 15 minutes, with both sides by now aware of the fact that would be enough to keep them up.
“I’m aware of the rivalry between the two teams because I was told about it quite early in my time here,” said Coventry boss Lampard.
“It’s not my rivalry, but I am Coventry now, so I have to be aware of it. It’s there, and that’s what football’s about, isn’t it? A bit of rivalry and a bit of edge.”
Lampard’s focus is on the present rather than the past, and his Coventry side thumped Sunderland 3-0 when the sides last met in March.
But the former England midfielder says the Sky Blues will have to be at their best to beat the Black Cats, even though Regis Le Bris’ side go into the play-offs on the back of five successive defeats.
Lampard said: “The reality is that we need to prepare well for the games and try to play well in them because they’re a good team.
“No one be fooled by the five defeats, they’ve been in the play-offs a long time and that’s not easy to manage. They’ve still got very good players and a certain way of playing. We’re going to have to be at our best.
“We played them recently, so we have a pretty good idea of what they’re all about, we’ll obviously be watching their more recent games. We played them and played well, but this will be a completely different game.
“We’ve got a fair understanding of them, but we’ll be watching them closely. It’ll be about us mainly though, and what we do. But we have to be clear about the level of player that they have and the problems they try to create.
“I remember the last game well, but we’ll have to prep well. That’s going to be important because there’s not going to be much active on-pitch training in between. Physically, the boys need to recover.”
