Frank Lampard looked back on a 3-1 defeat for Coventry City against Aston Villa in the Carabao Cup third round.
The Villans took an early lead when George Hemmings picked out Tammy Abraham to break in behind the backline, but then they were pegged back by a brilliant free kick from Victor Torp.
In the end, a pair of corners settled the score against the will of the Sky Blues. Ibrahim Mbaye, who made his full debut for the visitors, found the head of Ross Barkley with a cross from a set-piece, and John McGinn delivered the service for Abraham to bag his brace on the other side of the break.
‘We give two set-piece goals away simply’
The result continues a difficult run for Coventry, who have neither picked up a point nor scored a single goal in the Premier League this season and were battered 5-0 by Brighton on home soil last week. Lampard knows that outcomes after 90 minutes will ultimately dictate the discourse, but he tried to take positives from the performance on the evening.
“They started really bright and they got a poor goal from our point of view, the open play goal was poor but we reacted well and scored a fantastic free-kick and then made a push with good energy.
“That’s all the things we want and that made it difficult for them. But then if you give two set-piece goals away as simply as we did then you’ll find it hard to win against Premier League opposition.
“You get back at 1-1 and the soft nature of the second goal and then the third, you know they’re not easy to come back from. So that’s the critical part of the game for us today.”
