"You Have To EARN Your Stripes Again!" Cascarino On Lampard Reaching Play-Offs With Coventry City!

Frank Lampard's Coventry City skewered a playoff place yesterday, Lampard having taken over in November and led them from 17th to 6th. Here's what he had to say afterwards. Even at 1-0, you know, they had a few moments in the second half. So you're always waiting, what's the score here and there? And it started to go in our favourites thing, but I know football well enough that I only enjoyed it probably when Rudy put in the second one. When he put that in, I knew we were done. But yeah, I had a feeling like when the crowd are at it and the players are at it, they were on it, they were, you know, really, really focused. So when we're like that at home, then we know we've got a really good chance in the game. What about the job he's done there? Yeah, well look, when you're a player of his stature, you're, you know, always up against it and he's been battling to prove himself and he's had the Derby experience, the Chelsea experience, Everton and, you know, and then he goes to Coventry and people will say, why has he chose to go in the Championship? And the facts of the matter are, you have to earn your stripes again and he's gone to Coventry. Like most managers I've met and people I know in football, the drug of football gets them to be wanting to be back in and it's a great club. It attracts 30,000, they can get, you know, decent crowds. It was an era after Mark Robbins, you know, by the way, has kept Stoke up as well. Let's not forget that because there was a period of time where Stoke were really in bad trouble as well, but he's led like he was as a player. I thought they were good yesterday, considering it was a real ding-dong game. It was as entertaining as a game I've seen for a long time, literally one end to the other, especially in the second half, but fair play to Lampard and what he's achieved at Coventry, get them in that position because their form had slightly gone towards the end of the season. So there would have been concerns there, can they get over the line and they had to get into the playoffs. But why do you say people were surprised that he'd gone there? Because he couldn't cherry pick a Premier League job at that stage. I mean, he doesn't need the money. Do you mean that? Well, yeah, a lot of these guys have had such a big career that they might look at football as a bit of an obstacle sometimes in management. And management is, only for everybody I've known who's done it, is really hard. Okay. You could be successful and then when it goes wrong, you can be flavour of the month as a manager and everybody loves you. And three months later, people are screaming for you to be out the door. That's football. And that's what you're up against. So, and he's very conscious of that. But, you know, if you look at him as a player and what he's learned and the managers he's played under, I'm sure he would say to you now, I'm a better manager now than I was when I first got given my first job. Yeah. Don't forget backroom staff. We don't talk about backroom staff. It's not really a sexy subject. Yeah, you're right. But he's taking people in there who he says do the things that he's not very good at. And he's, well, good luck to him. This way, Jackie's Jodie Morris, he's had Paul Clement, you know, Joe Edwards, you know, so he's had all these type of people behind him. And, but he's had to make changes. And sometimes it's a bit ruthless. It feels ruthless from the outside. Yeah. And what about John Eustace at Derby, doing the job, coming in from Blackburn, doing the job that he was brought in to do, but he has a very good reputation and well done to Derby. Well, I saw Derby in the FA Cup against Lake Norient and they got knocked out and they were very much their first team I was watching. And I came away and said, I couldn't believe how bad Derby were, how poor they'd been in the game. And, you know, and then looking at them surviving and getting results towards the end of the season, they've had some big ones because they've had to, to stay up. But yeah, it became a real dog fight, didn't it? A traditional dog fight at the bottom end of the table. Yeah, it did. That draw was quite predictable, wasn't it? With Derby as well. Especially when they knew Luton. And when they know that Luton, you know, which they would have jacked it, they'd have known Luton were 4-1 down at one stage. You know, a draw was absolute certainty safety for them too. Yeah. Bradford City. Oh my God. Talk about final day drama. This is what we love. I mean, it was absolutely sensational. 96th minute and poor old Walsall, who've just been so bang out of form for so, so long. I think no wins in 13. They did manage to win yesterday, didn't they at Crewe? But just the phenomenal, phenomenal late drama at Bradford City with a 96th minute winner. And was it offside though? I thought it was offside initially, but also is it one of the scrappiest goals you've ever seen? Which makes it better though, doesn't it? It creates the drama, doesn't it? That in the last minute, and look, I know people were going to say like they shouldn't do it, but you know, we saw quite a lot of fans on pitches yesterday, didn't they? With the excitement of the championship and the EFL in general and, uh, have carried away fans. Luckily with no incident, luckily. Yeah, exactly. Well, it's not great before the final whistle because it was a long, long delay. And then it was coming up on all the, um, all the results app saying that it was full time and it wasn't. And then poor old Walsall, I really felt for their fans. I've got to try and go again. Haven't they? But that's what the proper drama is all about. Graham Alexander managing just to get Bradford city over the line. Huge, huge club as well, aren't they? And, um, Walsall have got to get in the playoffs. AFC Wimbledon, our family club finally managed to score a goal. Oh my goodness. Sam Hutchinson with a goal from a corner and they're in the playoffs in fifth place and they'll be playing Notts County and it's Walsall. Do you only like clubs that begin with W? Yes, absolutely. I insist upon it. Or is the AFC coming in first to Wimbledon? No, no, no. It's, uh, no, it'd be a great story, but the goals have dried up something rotten. That was the first goal in almost five games. We're going to say, but, uh, yeah, Chesterfield with a bit of momentum going into the playoffs as well. We're coming back. We're going to be having a look at some of the Premier League action that took place yesterday on AM on DAV via the talk sport app and on your smart speaker.