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Frank Lampard: Coventry fans should 'stay excited' ahead of Premier League return

Frank Lampard has told Coventry fans to "stay excited" as the club start planning for next season's Premier League campaign.

He and his title-winning players enjoyed the adulation of around 2,000 supporters for 10 minutes after the final whistle as they bade farewell to the Championship in style with a 4-0 win at Watford.

An Ellis Simms hat-trick and a stunning late strike from Viktor Torp proved far too powerful for a Hornets side who ended the season with five straight defeats.

Lampard said: "They can just enjoy it and stay excited. The club has to do the hard work and the owner [Doug King] has said that he wants to talk about that from next week.

"It's a special story this year and this is right up there in the amount of pleasure I have had in football.

"I'm living it and I feel very fortunate to live it. To be able to stand there today and enjoy the way the boys were playing, you don't get to do that very often.

"It was reflective afternoon and at the end with the fans, it also reflects how much of a connection we have with the fans.

"We may lose more games next season than this but we must not lose that connection."

Lampard rung the changes from the side that beat Wrexham last Sunday.

"That was incredible from the lads after we made seven changes. A lot of them haven't had many minutes lately and you worry that will affect the performance," Lampard said.

"It didn't. They played brilliantly. What a day. The fans were on fire from beginning to end and after the match they were brilliant.

"The way the lads played highlighted the work that has been done because I didn't even have to have a team meeting today.

"Players came in who hadn't played, they've listened to the messages all season and they've improved a lot, every one of them."

Judging by the half-hearted commitment of some of the Watford players, manager Ed Still will be fearful that he may become yet another casualty in the club's seemingly endless churn of managers.

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Still said: "It's definitely not the way we wanted to end the season. We defended the cross for the first goal so poorly and we have trained to stop that all week. It shows how fragile confidence is in the whole group. The end of season has come now, and is needed.

"We need to reset the squad and the staff. We need to make sure that the energy is stronger to withstand the demands of a whole Championship season. You need to keep cohesion and togetherness for as long as possible.

"Today you could see the effects of so many being players are on loan here or at the end of their contracts, or so many players who feel like their time at the club has come to an end."

Still did not need reminding that he is Watford's third manager this season, nor about the club's owners habit of sacking the incumbent when results are poor.

He added: "I'm not oblivious to the negative momentum and the negative feeling that surrounds the club right now. Hopefully people have seen from day one my love for the club and how much that has grown."

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