Coventry City gave their return to the Premier League a proper homecoming, sweeping aside Newcastle United 4-1 for a second successive league win under Frank Lampard.
In a city further from the sea than any other major urban centre in England, the noise at the Coventry Building Society Arena carried a long way. Coventry had waited 25 years to score a Premier League goal on their own ground, but that drought was broken inside five minutes when Jamie Rudoni put away a penalty.
It was the opening that unsettled Newcastle, who created moments but found neither precision nor composure in front of goal. Matías Fernández-Pardo endured a particularly frustrating evening as the visitors failed to turn their possession into a foothold in the contest.
Cherif delivers the moment of the night
Coventry’s second was the sort of strike to make a stadium forget the years it had waited for nights like this. Cherif, the 19-year-old French forward signed from Fenerbahçe in the summer for a fee of just over €24 million, thundered a shot from the edge of the area beyond Hornicek.
Newcastle did briefly threaten a recovery when Sven Botman drove in an excellent effort from outside the box. Yet the goal did not change the direction of the match for long.
Lampard’s side finished with authority, Simms adding a third before Mfuni completed the scoring late on. It was Coventry’s first home victory since their top-flight return, and one delivered with rather more comfort than the scoreline initially seemed likely to permit.
Space above the drop, questions for Newcastle
The result moves Coventry three points clear of the relegation places and gives Lampard’s side belief after back-to-back Premier League victories.
Newcastle, meanwhile, remain on eight points and stranded in the middle ground of the table. Their evening in the West Midlands was marked by missed opportunities, while Coventry took theirs with the ruthlessness of a side determined to make their old ground feel like Premier League territory again.
