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What Was Frank Lampard's Problem After Southampton Game

Over 30,000 supporter's of both clubs had just witnessed a hard fought games between two of the Championship's best teams at St Mary's, but no one could have predicted the shenanigans that went on after the game as the Coventry City manager went into meltdown.

It had been a niggly game, Coventry were employing the "Dark Arts" I lost could of the number of instances of shirt pulling that went unnoticed by the officials, their tactics were stop us at all costs once they had gone down to 10 men, both legal and illegal.

As I have said in the Verdict, they were pumped up for this one, they were determined not to lose and to do what ever was needed to achieve a draw.

On the face of things there was little of note to suggest what would happen at the final whistle, although they had employed negative tactics they had done what they needed to do, on the pitch it was business as usual for both sides.

Apart from the Welington tackle, there was little serious foul play, just niggly little things designed to frustrate.

So why did Frank Lampard go into total meltdown at the final whistle ?

If we look at the reasons, then there is little to suggest why he did so, yes the Northam End gave him a bit of stick, but calling him "A sh*te Steven Gerrard" is hardly the worst thing he will have been called in his career.

Perhaps he was incensed at the red card, but he would have see a replay of the incident in the dug out within minutes of it happening, he would have known it was a nailed on red card.

However Lampard does have a history of blowing a fuse, after leaving West Ham he was a big critic of the club and showed little respect to it after his departure, along with other Chelsea players on a drinking binge, he abused American tourists at a Heathrow hotel shortly after 9/11 in 2001.

Then there was the time he phoned up a radio show in 2009 because they were discussing his divorce.

So he has a track record in losing it or perhaps he would call it passion.

But that is still not a real reason for what he did at the final whistle on Saturday, instead of heading for his own fans to celebrate a historic draw, he set off towards the Northam End and started to give them abuse using various gestures with his hands and arms.

Seeing that he was inflaming the situation, Taylor Harwood-Bellis went to Lampard and spoke to him, I would assume to suggest that what was happening was not a good idea.

This seemed to work and both walked away from the Northam and Lampard appeared to be heading to his own supporters, but then it all truly went mad, he turned back to the Northam and again made gestures and then it turned nasty, a melee, I won't call it a brawl, involving both teams and the Coventry coaching staff.

It was all a bit handbags at dawn, I don't think a punch was thrown, but this unsavoury sight had all been due to Lampard's behaviour.

As I say it was uncalled for, Lampard was clearly pumped up and he blew his top, but this is a man who has won Premier League titles, Champions Leagues, FA Cups, this was hardly a game for him up there with the games in those competitions, it was a 1-1 draw in the Championship at Southampton.

I am not sure what will happen next, one thing is that Saints should not be blamed for this, Lampard's actions were uncalled for, unprofessional and embarrassing, but perhaps more worryingly, they could have lead to real violence.

In fairness most Saints supporters were already out of the stands and on their way home, even those on the concourses were in the main standing around talking and not realising it was on the tv screens.

If there had been more in the ground this might have got nasty with 3,000 Coventry supporters celebrating their point with their team when suddenly it all kicked off.

Some of them might have taken things outside the ground, in short Lampard's action could have incited a riot, if he had behaved like that on some of the protests we have seen on the streets of Britain this year, and sparked a melee like this, he would almost certainly have been looking at a prison sentence.

This is perhaps going a bit too far, but in today's volatile country we are seeing people imprisoned for doing a lot less than Lampard's actions., but I am certainly not of the opinion that Lampard should face a criminal charge, however he should have the book thrown at him by the FA.

I appreciate that being called a "Shite Steven Gerrard" is not nice, but that is the price you pay for being paid £100k a week as a player and something similar as a manager.

I spent my entire footballing career being called something similar, luckily enough usually by only three men & a dog, whilst paying subs for the privilege, there were 30,000 people watching who would love a job paying that much and all you have to do is take a little bit of abuse.

On Saturday Frank Lampard embarrassed himself & Coventry City, given some of his pat behaviour perhaps the chant next time he arrives at St Mary's will be "Your just a Sh*te Human Being"

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