Jay Dasilva ends Coventry’s 25-year wait with 1-0 win at the City Ground
Jay Dasilva's goal gave Coventry City a 1-0 win over Forest at the City Ground on Saturday, their first Premier League victory since Mustapha Hadji netted in a 3-2 defeat by Aston Villa on 5 May 2001.
At that time Hear'Say were top of the pops, a mobile phone game called 'Snake' was all the rage and Tony Blair was Prime Minister. Coventry's last top-flight victory before Saturday had been a 1-0 win over Sunderland on 5 May 2001, John Hartson heading the winner for Gordon Strachan's side in front of 20,946 fans at Highfield Road.
The club's fortunes have since taken a turbulent course: they were relegated at the end of the 2000-01 campaign, spent the next 11 seasons in the second tier and dropped down to League One in 2012. Coventry then endured points deductions and a stint in administration, left Highfield Road in 2005, and became embroiled in a bitter dispute over the Ricoh Arena in 2013 and its rent.
The period of upheaval included being forced to play matches away from Coventry, at Northampton Town, and a fall to the fourth tier in 2017 for the first time in 59 years. Many of the supporters in the Bridgford Stand on Saturday had been present through those years of Sky Blue hell, and there was an explosion of emotion at the full-time whistle.
Coventry had been stranded on 99 Premier League wins for over a quarter of a century before this victory ticked them over to three figures. "It's been a tough opening for us, so those first Premier League points feel great," Coventry boss Frank Lampard told BBC Radio 5 Live. "I thought the players were brilliant. The fight, work ethic and togetherness but also the tactical side of it. They dug and fought for each other which is what you need to win a Premier League game."
Lampard said he hoped the result could act as a staging post in a campaign where avoiding relegation will be the main aim. "It's really important for some of the players," he told BBC Match of the Day. "For many of them it is their debut in the Premier League, they haven't been here before and they need to feel like they belong and play like that."
Acknowledging the scale of the challenge after a heavy defeat, Lampard referenced the 5-0 loss at home to Brighton and stressed the need to learn and stay unified. "There are lots of things we can learn and sometimes this year we may take those hits, it's a reality for teams that get to the Premier League," added Lampard. "It's important we overcome them in terms of how we take it on board and stay together. "It is easy to point in different directions when you lose but the group's really strong, really together, there'll have a good feeling from this one. But we'll keep our feet on the ground because it is one win, but it was needed for us."
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