Frank Lampard watched on from the stands as his playoff-chasing Coventry side were held to a 1-1 draw at struggling Hull. Lampard served a one-match touchline ban at the MKM Stadium and was fined £2,000 after his sending off at the end of the defeat by Burnley earlier this month for an outburst at referee James Bell.
While Coventry largely dominated Hull and went ahead through a deflected strike from Matt Grimes, who earlier produced two goalline blocks to deny Kasey Palmer, substitute Abu Kamara equalised. Lampard’s side therefore stay sixth, moving three points clear of seventh-placed West Brom, and the manager may rue his team’s lack of a clinical edge as Hull goalkeeper Ivor Pandur made several important saves.
Hull remain in 20th but are now three points clear of the relegation zone with just four matches left, largely thanks to the heroics of Pandur. The Croatian was out of position early on when Ellis Simms got in behind the defence but a poorly executed lob went wide, although the Hull shot-stopper then did well to push away Haji Wright’s header.
Pandur denied Wright twice more as Coventry continued to dominate but Hull had the best chance of the half after 38 minutes as Palmer’s two shots from Regan Slater’s cutback were blocked on the line. With the goal gaping, the former Coventry midfielder saw his low efforts kept out by a perfectly positioned Grimes, whose clearance thumped into teammate Milan van Ewijk but somehow stayed out of the net.
Grimes’ interventions gained added significance when Coventry went ahead a minute after the break to get the goal their first-half display deserved – even if Hull could count themselves unfortunate. Grimes was involved again as Hull half-cleared to the edge of the box and his scuffed left-footed volley took a cruel deflection off Charlie Hughes, with Pandur having committed to diving the other way.
Grimes’ opener soon should have been added to as a quick burst from Simms left the Hull defence in his wake but despite no lack of power on his shot, Pandur was able to excellently tip away for a corner. Even then, Hull were not out of the woods as Wright’s close-range header came back off a post, while Jack Rudoni’s teasing cross after skipping past a couple of Hull challenges just evaded Simms.
With Hull getting thoroughly outclassed, Rubén Sellés introduced Nordin Amrabat and Kamara just before the hour and it had the desired effect as the latter struck with just eight minutes remaining. This time, Coventry were left cursing their luck as Kamara’s strike from a narrow angle ricocheted off Jay Dasilva and wrongfooted goalkeeper Bradley Collins before trickling in at the near post.
Coventry still might have nicked all three points at the death but Pandur produced one final vital stop by parrying away Van Ewijk’s sharp shot from the edge of the area as it finished all-square on a frustrating night for the visiting manager.
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“That last, last bit – balls flashing across goal, we’ve got to be ready to bundle it in, get good finishes but sometimes it doesn’t work out that way,” Lampard said afterwards. “It’s frustrating but I never criticise the players because I’ve been there. In football, nights can pan out this way and it feels disappointing, but I was pleased with the performance.”
“Tactically it’s a great view and you can see the big picture really well,” Lampard added after watching the match from the stands. “But I missed being close to the players. It was difficult in a sense for me but I had no worries with the staff. We do our prep through the week, this one I’ll just take on the chin for what it was.”
“That feels like a huge point,” the Hull head coach, Rubén Sellés, said. “To be able to come back and get the point, I think the game was going in that direction – they had some chances, so did we. We’ll take it.”
