FRANK Lampard wants his Coventry City side to guard against complacency ahead of a trip to Oxford United this weekend.
The Sky Blues head into the clash having won seven of their last eight league matches after breaking a 17-year curse in beating Preston North End last time out.
And while Lampard acknowledges his side have made big strides over the last couple of months, he insists Coventry can only achieve a top-six finish if they balance confidence with understanding the difficulty of each fixture.
Lampard said: “I’m a big stickler for complacency in terms of when things are going well, I was like that as a player individually and as a coach I’m the same.
“I’m always looking signs of where we think we’ve cracked it and when we feel too confident, you have to find that balance of keeping the confidence and understanding things we’re doing really well, with an understanding of the difficulty of the game that Oxford will be, and I have to manage that.
“Good teams and good squads handle that situation, and we have to because we’ve made big strides, but they only get us on the brink of the play-offs, if we want more, this is what we do from now.”
Oxford have failed to win any of their last six matches, scoring just one goal over the course of those six games.
However, Lampard insists City must respect the U’s and is anticipating a difficult test on the road.
Lampard added: “They have character and a coach who knows the league really well and there’s no doubt that it’s going to be a difficult and challenging game for us.
“Every game in this league is and this will be no different. You have to be wary of what they have and respect it.
“We go into the game confident because we’re playing well, but we know it will be a tough match.”
Coventry travel to Oxford on Saturday, March 1 with kick-off at 12.30pm at the Kassam Stadium.
