Brandon Thomas-Asante gave perfect Coventry City response as Frank Lampard's gamble paid off
Coventry City posted a key success and their first Championship win in four as Brandon Thomas-Asante ended his goal drought with the winner against Bristol City at the CBS Arena on Saturday.
Thomas-Asante was played in by Jack Rudoni just after the hour mark and belted in a stinging shot into the roof of the net to win the game and give himself a shot in the arm, in a week when his own future at the club has been the subject of speculation.
City clung on to three very valuable points. Here are the talking points.
READ MORE: Frank Lampard identifies the Coventry City unsung hero who is a 'dream to work with'
READ MORE: Coventry City player ratings v Bristol City as Thomas-Asante nets stunning winner
Broken duck
Thomas-Asante needed this. Strikers like him, who has scored relatively regularly over the last couple of years, can't have been anything other than frustrated with his own contribution in recent months.
There are plenty of components - the change in manager, the competition for places - but Thomas-Asante has still had his chances and hasn't taken them. There was relief as much as elation as he powered in an unstoppable shot after the hour mark. Indeed he appeared to take it with all the confidence of Alexander Isak, from a narrowing angle, after being played in by Jack Rudoni.
Such is the way that forwards often operate, you'd hope that Thomas-Asante - linked with a move to Blackburn this week - might score at Ewood Park in a Sky Blues shirt on Tuesday and that can kickstart a purple patch. Frank Lampard did, after all, challenge his strikers to score more this week - Asante has duly obliged, but there is no time to rest on laurels.
Home comforts
This was City's seventh home game in succession without suffering a defeat, with six of them coming under Lampard. In the first instance, as a new manager takes his place on the touch-line, making your home ground a difficult place to come to and taking advantage of playing in familiar surroundings is a necessity.
It's not been plain sailing. Cardiff was helter skelter. Millwall frustrated. Sheffield Wednesday scored late last week to force a nervy extension of the FA Cup tie. Still, in that time they've posted three important league victories here, too, the most recent being here. Bristol City are a neat and tidy team with creative midfielders but often as toothless as City themselves.
There wasn't likely to be much in it and, as Lampard outlined, the Sky Blues needed a 'moment', which Thomas-Asante duly produced. It's another clean sheet to add to the tally, too, another small step in the right direction. Now, though, City must start to threaten on the road a little more, beginning with Blackburn this coming week.
Decisions pay off
Jake Bidwell and Bobby Thomas are two players who you wouldn't have foreseen being left out of the starting XI only a couple of weeks ago, yet Joel Latibeaudiere and Jay Dasilva both got the nod here ahead of that pair, who dropped to the bench.
The team sheet landing at 2pm might've prompted some raised eyebrows, but Lampard is keen to stress that not a single player in this match-day squad is guaranteed to start at any given time - including the goalkeeper who, which touching on Oliver Dovin, made two excellent saves here.
Keeping every player on their toes, in every department of the squad, drives standards in training and then, hopefully, on the pitch on a weekly basis too. Bidwell and Thomas, received warmly by supporters along with Tatsuhiro Sakamoto and Raphael Borges Rodrigues as they made their way out to warm up in the first half, have to wait for their chance again.
Stretch the play
The system involving a back three and marauding wing-backs is certainly beginning to take effect. While the personnel is rotating, the structure remains the same - but there is still an emphasis on the wide players to fulfil what is a demanding role. Dasilva and Van Ewijk were both prominent in the advanced areas of the pitch, especially in the first half here. Indeed the latter had two shots on goal in the opening 45 and Dasilva could've had a penalty.
"They have, if not we become a low block and you invite pressure," Lampard said. "It's not really us, we're not really the personnel for that in my opinion. We have to use the wing backs. Milan scored at Norwich, he has a good chance today. He is getting in the box when the ball is on the other side.
"Jay was getting on the ball a lot. He's a really good footballer, he can join in, he can play and he can see a lot of passes that others don't. Both of their contributions were good today and it's important we keep that."
