Coventry City ended a 25-year wait for a Premier League goal and a Premier League victory in front of their own supporters, beating Newcastle United 4-1 at the CBS Arena to climb out of the relegation zone.
Jack Rudoni’s penalty, a first Coventry goal for Sidiki Cherif and late strikes from Ellis Simms and Stephen Mfuni delivered the win, which moved Frank Lampard’s side up to 14th and level on points with Manchester United after six games. It was the first time Coventry have scored four goals in the top flight since a 4-1 victory over Sheffield Wednesday in May 2000, and it followed a win at Nottingham Forest before the international break. The last time the club won at home in the Premier League, Emma Bunton was top of the UK charts with “What Took You So Long?” — a title that fitted the wait neatly.
The result arrives after a difficult start to life back in the top division at the CBS Arena, where Coventry had lost 1-0 to fellow promoted side Hull and been thumped 5-0 by Brighton, with a 3-1 Carabao Cup defeat by Aston Villa sandwiched in between. Lampard said the performance showed a side capable of making the ground a difficult place to visit.
“We’re going to be a relative underdog in pretty much every game,” he said. “So we have to maximise everything and be on the limit and I thought we were on the limit in loads of ways. They need to keep their feet on the ground because the next one’s tough and the one after that will be tough. But we look like a team that [will make it] hard for teams to come here. That’s the feeling we haven’t quite had in our first CBS games this season.”
The manager also spoke about the confidence the win should generate among a squad short on Premier League experience. “It’s big and we have to tap into that in a good way, in a humble way,” Lampard said. “We have to be excited and I’m seeing players in my eyes that are developing quite quickly. A lot of players had low Premier League minutes, or zero Premier League minutes — Jack Rudoni, [Brandon] Thomas Asante, [Ephron] Mason-Clark, a lot of them. So is it human nature in the first few games we’ve had two top teams in the league (Arsenal and Manchester City) and we’ve had Brighton and we’ve gone: ‘hmm, it’s not easy here’. This [win] gives good confidence, so it’s the balance of confidence against overconfidence.”
Cherif was handed his first Premier League start after his summer move from Fenerbahce and marked it with a crisp finish through a crowd of defenders, having already won the early penalty. At 19 years and 301 days old, he became Coventry’s youngest Premier League goalscorer since Robbie Keane against Middlesbrough in April 2000, and the first Coventry player to score a Premier League goal from outside the box since David Thompson struck against Newcastle in January 2001. It was his first goal in a fourth appearance for the club, and it came in a campaign in which he has taken on added responsibility with Hadji Wright out with a serious thigh injury.
“We’ve got a lot of belief in Sidi, a big signing for the club,” Lampard said. “He’s very respectful but there’s a hunger that flicks on when he goes on to the training pitch and in game. Sometimes you don’t realise he’s 19. He’ll be disappointed with the one he missed and I’ve said to him it’s no problem because that’s good. He’s got that little edge to him in a good way. Sidi has played in European competition with Fenerbahce, so there is something about him that hopefully feels like he belongs on the level. There’s something about him I think is a bit special.”
Coventry scored 97 goals in winning the Championship last season, and the ruthlessness of their finishing against Newcastle recalled that attacking power. The run ahead now is a trip to Tottenham followed by the visit of Fulham — both sides still without a win — with fixtures against Sunderland, Everton, Crystal Palace, Leeds and Ipswich taking them into December. Those around the club’s Ryton training ground believe that if the side remain competitive across that sequence of seven games, they will have a platform for survival. The defeat was Newcastle’s second successive 4-1 loss on the road.