The manager, for his part, has protected his players from the promotion pressure.
He said: “I try to be simple and direct about it. I don’t like to talk too much. My situation 15 years ago in a big game is maybe different to theirs but maybe it’s one of the positives of having a long career and then becoming a manager. You have lived it.
“I can give some personal reflections or words which can impact the players. I have been here before. Every game is a banana skin if you don’t approach it in the right way – if you either relax or allow the pressure to overcome you.
“So I try to keep it simple and if I feel it’s time for a little bit of a poke, I can give them a poke.
“I get on well with them, I think I do. I can give them that poke and sometimes you try to find the right situation.”
Those pokes have been rarely needed this season. They have lost successive league games just once, suffering defeats by Norwich and QPR in January as a 10-point lead evaporated.
Middlesbrough were level on 58 points at the end of January. Since then, Coventry have lost once in 13, winning eight of them.
Boro even went top in February but Coventry them beat them 3-1 to regain control.
In the past 99 seasons, Coventry have won five successive games only five times – three of them have come under Lampard this season after another streak last term.
“You’re welcome,” he joked. “I’m happy, of course I am, it’s should reflect on the players and the staff.
“Me, Chris [Jones] and Joe [Edwards] drove up here a year-and-a-bit ago and it was all new to us as well.
“We have enjoyed it but the boys and everyone have worked so hard. The players are the ones who deliver.”
Of the changes Lampard has driven, none have been bigger than shifting the pessimistic Sky Blue thinking.
After numerous blows on and off the field in the past decade – despite now three promotions in eight years – Coventry fans could be forgiven for their gloomy outlook. Reclaiming a top-flight place has restored belief.
“I watched them come down the leagues. Maybe the fans are entitled to have the syndrome,” said Lampard.
“I grew up a West Ham fan and it was similar, in a different way, as they reflected on 1966, I went to Everton for a year and it was similar.
“It’s human nature. Maybe it’s British culture – what’s round the corner, expect the worst – but I get it.
“It’s part of the fun – it doesn’t sound fun but you’ve got to suffer to enjoy the good stuff.”
