Frank Lampard identified moments like Tom Lawrence’s late, late winner for Derby County against Reading as one of the reasons why he wanted to make the move into football management.
With the last action of the game, Lawrence latched on to Mason Bennett’s cross and thundered a header into the top corner to complete a comeback that began with Mason Mount equaliser.
It sent the travelling Derby fans as well as the Rams’ bench into raptures, and when he spoke to RamsTV after the game, Lampard put his feelings into words.
He said: “This is football and this is why I came into management - the fans at the end of the game and those celebrations, we have to savour them because that’s what hard work can get you.
“What a finish. You can call it a stroke of luck, but those things are hard-earned.
“We want to celebrate together, it’s a squad game, with the staff and everybody involved and we feel it deeply.
“It’s a last-second winner, so it’s an incredible feeling.
“I would have taken a fantastic performance and a comfortable win, but football is about these moments, this is what we are here for.”
The Welshman’s header will deservedly grab the headlines, but Bennett also deserves immense credit for his part in the winner, and Lampard revealed that he has been hugely impressed by the 22-year-old since arriving at the club.
He said: “Mason Bennett, since the first day has been so, so impressive, with his work-rate and the things that he can do, to dig out an incredible cross.
“The header from Tom Lawrence was amazing but if Mason doesn’t make that run and doesn’t dig out that cross…
“They were threatened [by Bennett] in a way that they weren’t threatened before that, it was fantastic.”
The Rams were impressive in the second half and thoroughly deserved the winner in the end, but improvement was needed after a first period that Reading controlled, and Lampard believes that there is plenty of work to be done.
“We were slow and we moved the ball slowly. Reading were smart, they defended as a block and they tried to stop us from playing out through the lines,” he explained.
“It was tough but we needed to quicken up our game and we needed more urgency.
“There are times when you can take the sting out of the game, but when a team is sitting back and you move slowly, you invite your own problems.
“It’s a tough, tough game. We have to learn because there is loads of room for improvement.”
