Can anyone stop Coventry City? Well, Wrexham did a few weeks ago. But since then Frank Lampard’s side have bounced back with three wins.
They trailed against Sheffield United but won 3-1. A late Ephron Mason-Clark stunner settled a 1-0 win at Stoke. And the most dramatic: they came from two down to beat West Brom 3-2 at home — aided by a Jayson Molumby red card at 2-1, but a fightback that felt inevitable once momentum shifted.
Coventry are seven points clear at the top after 16 games — the biggest lead any Championship leader has held at that stage. Two sides had previously been six points clear; Wolves in 2008/09 went on to the title, while Watford the season before slipped to sixth and lost in the play-offs. Opta rates Coventry’s chance of promotion at nearly 90 per cent. The gap to third is 10 points.
That cushion will be tested when Coventry visit Middlesbrough on Tuesday night (live on Sky Sports+ and the Sky Sports app). Boro are Coventry’s nearest challengers but have been destabilised by the departure of Rob Edwards. Kim Hellberg will formally take charge after the Coventry game; Adi Viveash is caretaker for what he says will be his final match. Viveash worked under Mark Robins at Coventry and was part of the Sky Blues side that beat Middlesbrough in the 2023 play-off semi-finals.
Middlesbrough arrive unbeaten at home this season, winning five of seven at the Riverside. “Coventry, at the moment, are the best team in the Championship, which is why they’re where they are,” Viveash said. “They’re scoring a lot of goals and winning a lot of football matches. It’s first vs second at the moment, and when you play the best team in the Championship, it’s always a mouth-watering game. It’s at the Riverside, where we’re unbeaten which is always a big thing. It’s a big challenge and certainly we’ll need as good a performance as we’ve produced in three of the home games against quality opposition this season. It will be a difficult challenge for them as well though.”
If not Boro, could Coventry’s own squad depth derail them during a crucial run? Lampard has flagged a lack of backup as a concern. With three first-choice defenders missing at Wrexham they were beaten, and striker Haji Wright will be absent for the next couple of games. “Since the window shut in the summer we knew we lacked backup in some areas,” Lampard told Sky Sports. “We aren’t always in a position to make changes that other teams can make. But it is what it is. We will always do the prep and the recovery, and manage training to try and get the best out of the group as a whole. If we have to rotate, we rotate.”
Coventry now face 10 Championship games in 40 days before the January window, a congested period where injuries could prove costly. Lampard acknowledged the challenge: “So far we’ve been good but this will be a challenging period. But we’ll do our best to manage it all through to Christmas and beyond, and hopefully we can keep up our level of performance.”
Sky Sports’ EFL Editor Simeon Gholam divides Coventry’s season so far into three phases. The first saw draws hamper progress (four draws in their first six games). The second was a dominant run of six successive wins, with 19 goals scored and just two conceded. The third, since the defeat at Wrexham, has been characterised by scrappy wins, comebacks and resilience. Gholam notes the West Brom victory was impressive given it was achieved largely without Haji Wright (eight goals this season) and mostly without Brandon Thomas-Asante, the Championship’s top scorer on 10, who only came on when Coventry were 3-2 up.
Even if Coventry win at Middlesbrough and extend the lead to 10, Lampard is unlikely to be carried away. As he told Gholam in a recent interview: “My nature has never been to get too high. I always look ahead to the next challenge and try to guard against complacency. I want to stay demanding while keeping things steady.” That calm, measured approach will be key if Coventry are to maintain form through a testing fixture schedule.