This time last year Mark Robins was told by Doug King that he wanted an FA Cup run and the former Coventry City manager duly delivered, guiding the Sky Blues to within millimetres of making the final.

Twelve months on and new boss Frank Lampard is preparing his team to enter the famous competition at the third round stage with a late kick-off (6pm) against Championship rivals Sheffield Wednesday. A self confessed traditionalist whose history and memory of the Cup goes back to watching his dad, Frank Lampard Snr, help lift the trophy for West Ham United when just a toddler in the 1980 final win over Arsenal, the head coach knows his own mind on such matters.

Asked if the current owner has instructed him either way regarding the approach to this year’s cup campaign, he said: “He doesn’t need to. I love the competition and I’m a traditionalist in a sense of how important it is.”

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Like many football fans of a certain age he remembers FA Cup final days as a special date in the calendar, when the terrestrial TV coverage on both the BBC and ITV started mid-morning, with all the build-up to the three o’clock kick-off. He was nine years old when John Sillett and George Curtis led the Sky Blues to the club’s finest hour against Tottenham Hotspur in 1987.

“I don’t remember it as such but I would have watched it and I’ve seen reruns many a time,” said the 46-year-old. “It was a fantastic, old school final so it’s there in my memory.”

He also knows the value of the achievement as part of the club’s history.

“Absolutely, and this is a club based on tradition and fan base and history,” he said, “and absolutely we should celebrate that and that’s why I treat this cup with the utmost respect whilst managing the club because I understand that. They are great days and we should always remember that final.

“I remember 1980 when West Ham won the FA Cup. I was a young West Ham fan at the time my dad was playing so I’m very nostalgic in that way. Obviously lots of things have evolved but, for me, I have a strong feeling of the FA Cup and we should obviously hold on to our history here.”

Lampard has a strong affinity with the competition, having been involved in seven as player and manager, including four wins as a player and scoring the winning goal in one.

“I was lucky to have good success in the FA Cup for the most part, so it’s a big competition for me,” he said.

“It’s an incredible feeling (to score the winning goal in a final). I grew up as a young boy wanting to do that exact thing. And when you have it you realise how fortunate you are, and maybe when you’re older you look back and realise even more how fortunate you are. I must have been in my late 20s/30 at that point but I played in good teams. We were successful in a couple and you rely on your teammates, so when you have that individual moment then it’s obviously special.”

Reflecting on his record with Derby in the Championship a few years ago, he said: “I think we got to the last 16, had a run in the Carabao Cup where we beat Manchester United. I did it at Chelsea, got to the final. I’m not just trying to relay my credentials here but I understand the feeling. And as long as the squad can handle it then you feel like it’s a positive.”

Asked if he watched last year’s semi-final when many City fans felt they were cheated out of a place in the final by the narrowest of VAR decisions, he said: “I’m not going to say cheated but I think we all saw it at the time. But the outstanding thing for me was the character of the team to get back in the game.

“As I watched it I had children running around so I was I sort of in and out of it and probably thought it was done, and then I watched the recovery, so that was a great moment for the players. And it’s good for those players to have those feelings. Playing here in the Championship and then going to Wembley and showing that they can do it there.

“They have to aspire to the consistency that will get you there more regularly. There’s a lot to it. You can have a cup run but to be consistently at those sort of levels is producing consistent training, behaviour and form. So that, for me, is the bigger part of it. It’s a nice feeling but it is gone now. We want to strive to be around that place again, not just the FA Cup but in our league form, consistently.”

Turning to today’s task against the Owls, the City boss said: “This is a good game. I’ve had nine games here. This is a game for me to see the players. I’m not in a position where I’m sitting back with a squad of 25 and saying, right, now it’s your turn. It’s not like that and we need to win and perform in every game, and this is a good chance to see.”

He added: “So we will pick a strong team because we want to do well in it. And we’ve got a competitive squad so there might be a couple of chances for players who haven’t been playing so much, but I’m picking a team that I want to win the game. We’ve had a good week with a rest after a busy period and then work, so yeah, I’ll put out a competitive team and expect the players to be competitive.”

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