Frank Lampard said he was spurred-on to his Chelsea goalscoring record by fans who stopped him in the street to wish him well.
The Blues midfielder, who scored his record 203rd goal for the club in the 89th minute of Saturday's top-four-securing 1-2 win at Villa Park, says he might not have made it but for the encouragement from supporters.
He said he didn't want to talk about the record in the run-up to achieving it, for fear of piling-on the pressure, but that he was now grateful to the people who made it an issue.
He said: “I tried not to (talk about the record), but a lot of people talked about it and the fans have been brilliant – they've been willing me to get there.
“But that just increased the pressure. But I can only thank people for doing that now – I can only say that now I've got there!”
He said people had stopped him in the street in recent weeks to wish him well in his pursuit of Bobby Tambling's record: “Yes, quite a few.
“And its become a bigger deal. I didn't really realise it would move outside the Chelsea bubble, but it has done.”
And he said he even had doubts during the very game in which he set the record that he would ever make it.
On hitting the post with a free kick earlier in the game, Lampard said: “I thought – 'here we go again!' I had a feeling it wasn't going to happen, in a way.
“But I think once I got my first goal today then I did have a bit of a feeling today was the day.”
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