Frank Lampard wants his new side, Coventry City, to channel the spirit of his old Derby County team when they travel to Sunderland on Tuesday night for the second leg of their Championship semi-final.
But it wasn’t just tactics on Lampard’s mind—his remarks stirred old rivalries and reignited one of the most infamous episodes in recent EFL history: Spygate.
In January 2019, a member of then-manager Marcelo Bielsa’s backroom staff was caught spying on Derby’s training session ahead of their clash with Leeds United. Bielsa later admitted to sending a staff member to observe every opponent’s training, prompting a £200,000 fine from the EFL and a rule change banning such visits unless invited within 72 hours of a fixture.
As fate would have it, Leeds and Derby met again in that season’s play-offs. After losing the first leg 1-0 at home, Lampard’s Derby mounted an unforgettable 4-3 aggregate comeback at Elland Road—an upset that still echoes through both clubs’ fanbases.
Now, nearly six years later, Lampard has thrown fuel on the fire.
Reflecting on that night, the Coventry boss said:
“I guess looking back, it has got to be tactically one of my favourite games that I’ve coached even to this point because I was going up against Bielsa and a team that I felt were really, really strong. I don’t think they (Leeds) or anybody else really expected us to turn that game around.”
Fans were quick to pick up on the pointed nostalgia, with many Leeds supporters seeing it as a sly dig—especially with Leeds having just secured automatic promotion back to the Premier League. Social media buzzed with reactions as Spygate memories resurfaced, proving that time hasn’t fully healed the scars of that chaotic 2019 showdown.
Lampard continued, “It was one of the first main games for me as a coach where I thought: ‘I’ve gone up against a really good coach, tweaked something and the lads did the rest.'”
Derby would eventually fall short in the final against Aston Villa, but the win over Leeds remains one of the defining moments of Lampard’s managerial career.
If Coventry are to replicate that same underdog magic, they’ll need to overturn a 2-1 first-leg deficit after Milan van Ewijk’s costly back pass gifted Sunderland the lead late in the game. But as Lampard proved in 2019—never count him out in a second leg.
Meanwhile, in the other play-off semi-final, Sheffield United hold a commanding 3-0 lead over Bristol City heading into Monday night’s second leg at Bramall Lane.
