NOTTINGHAM, England: Jay Dasilva sealed Coventry City’s first Premier League win for 25 years on Saturday as Frank Lampard’s side finally kick-started their season with a 1-0 victory at Nottingham Forest.
A horrible opening run of fixtures, including away trips to Arsenal and Manchester City, had given the Midlands side, who won last season’s Championship, a stark reality check.
Last week’s 5-0 home drubbing by Brighton and Hove Albion had left Coventry without a point or a goal and with a goal difference of minus 10, setting alarm bells ringing.
But when Dasilva expertly controlled a raking long delivery by keeper Carl Rushworth and cut in to bend a shot past Forest keeper Matz Sels in the 55th minute, it felt like lift-off.
Coventry’s hearts sank when Igor Jesus appeared to have equalized late on for the hosts but he was ruled to have clipped the foot of Caleb Yirenkyi, causing the midfielder to stumble, and the goal was chalked off after a VAR check.
It was the slice of fortune that Coventry deserved for an impressive display and one that will send them into the international break feeling like they now belong among the elite.
“It feels great, it feels amazing,” Lampard said. “The way the players worked for it. Having lost our first four games in different circumstances, it’s easy to feel negative, like where is the goal, where is the win coming from?
“The players deserve it. It’s really important for some of the players, for many of them it’s their debut in the Premier League and they need to feel like they belong.”
Coventry’s last win in the Premier League was against Sunderland in April 2001 but a few games later they were relegated to end their 34-year stay in the top flight.
The club dipped into the fourth tier during the troubled decades that followed, but all that was forgotten as the fans celebrated wildly at the final whistle.
“We have to keep our feet on the ground because it’s one win, and we’ve felt how ruthless the league is already,” Lampard, a three-time Premier League winner as a player with Chelsea, said. “We’ve had two of the toughest games on paper, probably in City and Arsenal, but it doesn’t matter.
“The points still said zero after four games and that hurts. So I think going into a break, yeah, for sure, for everyone to have a bit of rest, to feel good about it.
“You know that’s the starting point, so they can use that.”
