Coventry pulls eight points clear in Championship
Coventry City extended its lead at the EFL Championship summit to eight points as Ephron Mason-Clark's first-half strike was enough to seal a 1-0 win at home to Swansea City.
With second-placed Middlesbrough held to a goalless draw by Blackburn Rovers, Frank Lampard's team took full advantage to surpass the 50-point mark in the second tier before the year's end.
After a slow start, the Sky Blues found their groove as Liam Kitching stung the palms of Lawrence Vigouroux, with the Swansea goalkeeper making a fine stop soon after.
Tatsuhiro Sakamoto stood up a cross to the back post for Ellis Simms to head into the ground, but Vigouroux was on hand to claw the ball off the line and away from danger.
However, Swansea's resolve was broken a minute before half-time when Mason-Clark rifled the ball into the roof of the net after a long throw-in from Milan van Ewijk.
Coventry continued to dominate after the break as Mason-Clark saw a header saved by Vigouroux before Liam Cullen fired a huge chance over the crossbar in the 70th minute.
Lampard's side was forced to navigate a nervy final few minutes as Swansea pushed to snatch a late equaliser, but it was able to hold on for a 15th win of the season.
After being held to a draw with Southampton before Christmas, Coventry was aiming to bounce back on Boxing Day and has now put itself 13 points clear of third-placed Ipswich Town on the table.
Coventry has now won its past eight home league matches. It has not had a longer home winning run since between October 1959 and February 1960, when it claimed nine in a row.
"Over the course of the season, there are so many games you play. We had a hot patch earlier in the season where everything you hit goes in," Lampard said.
"Today we had a couple of chances first half that didn't go in, Ephron gets a great goal. We have chances in the second half to make it feel more secure and it doesn't quite drop for us, so try to keep clean sheets, try to do other parts of our game.
"We weren't as good today off the ball as we normally are. First half was more passive, less urgent, and that had to be said at half-time because they [Swansea] can play and we gave them the feeling that they can play, look up and find passes through us.
"We addressed that. They are a good team, they gave us a tough game and I am really pleased with the result."
