Coventry City recorded their first Premier League home win in 25 years, as they emphatically lifted themselves three points clear of the drop zone with a shock 4-1 victory over Newcastle United at the Coventry Building Society Arena.
A full 9,310 days after John Hartson clinched a 1-0 win over Sunderland at Highfield Road, Coventry wasted no time in ending the club’s quarter-century wait for a Premier League home goal, doing so via the spot.
Lukas Hornicek misread a ball into the box and took down Sidiki Cherif as he dived at the Guinean’s feet and sent him flying, giving Jack Rudoni the chance to net a first Premier League goal.
He obliged by sending Hornicek the wrong way, firing into the bottom-right corner – an unexpectedly early boost for him and Coventry, having seen each of his previous 10 league goals for the Sky Blues arrive after the 30th minute.
Newcastle inevitably began to pressurise, but the next golden chance fell to Cherif, who broke forward from Matias Fernandez-Pardo’s failure to connect with a Jacob Murphy cutback, only to shoot straight at Hornicek.
However, the visitors’ best chance of equalising before half-time came just two minutes before the interval, when Fernandez-Pardo burst forward and found himself with a gaping goal to aim at, only for Bobby Thomas to heroically block the shot.
Coventry needed a strong start to the second half to stub out the creeping sense of an imminent equaliser, and Cherif truly made it a maiden Premier League start to remember when he doubled Coventry’s advantage just three minutes after the restart.
Though he was the one to meet a long throw from Ethan Pinnock into the box, Malick Thiaw could only head out to Cherif, who took a touch on the edge of the box before drilling low into the bottom-left corner past a helpless Hornicek.
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Newcastle were suitably stunned, and Matthias Jaissle went for broke with a triple change at the hour mark.
Something emphatic was needed to get Newcastle back in the game, and as Coventry stood off Sven Botman, the Dutchman unleashed a 20-yard humdinger into the roof of the net at Carl Rushworth’s near post.
That was the cue for Newcastle to show the importance of strength in depth, but on a night of pure defiance, Coventry ripped up the script for good when Joelinton’s tackle on Brandon Thomas-Asante saw the ball trickle to Coventry substitute Ellis Simms, who rolled the loose ball into the net from the edge of the box.
And after Thomas-Asante struck the post from the edge of the box, Frank Lampard’s men ensured that Newcastle would repeat the nightmare they had at Elland Road just before the international break.
Teenage Manchester City loanee Stephen Mfuni fired across goal and into the bottom-right corner from a layoff by Jay Dasilva, rounding off the scoring.
After an opening month of ridicule, Coventry look like they could once more be an established Premier League side on this evidence, while for Newcastle, this devastating result means they have now kept only one clean sheet in their last 14 league games.
