'Armchair' Chelsea fan Cornick hoping to heap more pressure on Blues boss Lampard

Striker looking to cause an FA Cup upset at Stamford Bridge
Chelsea manager Frank LampardChelsea manager Frank Lampard
Chelsea manager Frank Lampard

Self-confessed ‘armchair’ Chelsea fan Harry Cornick would like nothing more to increase the pressure on his hero Frank Lampard when the Hatters head to Stamford Bridge in the FA Cup fourth round on Sunday.

The 25-year-old, who admitted to also being a ‘glory’ supporter picked out Lampard as the favourite player from his time supporting the Blues, which started back in 2004.

However, Lampard, who took over the hot-seat in July 2019, has seen his position come under increasing scrutiny in recent weeks following a run of five defeats in nine games.

After spending over £100m in the summer to recruit the likes of Kai Havertz, Ben Chilwell, Timo Werner and Hakim Ziyech, Lampard is now 8/15 with some bookies to be sacked by owner Roman Abramovic with a defeat to Luton possibly pushing him closer to the edge.

On the chances of scoring the winner that would do that, Cornick said: “I think that sounds perfect to me, that’s exactly what I want to do

“First and foremost, you’re playing for the team you play for, I don’t want Chelsea to win that game, no chance.

“Hopefully I can score the winner and knock them out of the cup. that’d be lovely.

“I’m going to try my best and hopefully we can turn them over and knock them out of the cup, which he wouldn’t like.”

After being third in the Premier League over a month ago, the Blues have dropped to eighth in the table and were beaten 2-0 by Leicester City last time out.

Asked for his thoughts on just how the team are doing under Lampard, now in his second season in charge, following replacing Maurizio Sarri, Cornick said: “It’s been a topsy turvy start.

"It’s a strange year in terms of the Premier League, a lot of teams are beating each other, that you wouldn’t expect.

“You’ve got Aston Villa beating Liverpool and last night even Burnley beat Liverpool, so there are a lot of teams beating teams that you wouldn’t expect.

“I think they’re doing OK, it’s sort of an integration year for him, to gel all the players together, but how long you get to do that, I don’t know.

“Hopefully he can turn it around and fire them to the top four.

"I think that would be a good year and maybe Champions League, I’ll take that.”

Although growing up on the south coast with hometown club Bournemouth in the lower echelons of the Football League, Cornick turned his attentions to the bright lights of Stamford Bridge to follow his brother and also not lose face with his school-mates

He said: “When I was growing up my brother supported Chelsea, he brought me up to support the same club as him.

“My first year was the year before (Jose) Mourinho came in when Jesper Gronkjaer scored the goal to send them to the Championship League.

“I’m a bit of a glory fan, to be honest.

“I started supporting them mainly when Mourinho was there when it was (John) Terry, Lampard, (Didier) Drogba, (Arjen) Robben, (Damien) Duff, those sorts of players, that’s when I really started supporting them properly.

“I was more of an armchair fan really, I went to a few games, it was away I used to go to more as I used to live in Bournemouth, so growing up that was the nearest one to me.

“My dad’s a City fan, he went to Manchester Uni, it’s just my brother really.

"I don’t know why he supported Chelsea, but I always remember him supporting Chelsea, so I just copied everything he did really.

"Whatever he did in life I copied and aspired to be like him, so followed him.

“I’m 100 per cent a glory fan I think.

"Living in Poole, Bournemouth were in League One at the time or League Two, so it wasn't very appealing for me going to school with all my mates supporting Liverpool and Arsenal.

“I thought I needed to support a team that’s doing all right and I can challenge my friends with, so Chelsea were the team that I picked.”