Coventry City went into Monday night with the poorest finishing record of any Premier League side. They came out of it with four goals, a second straight league win and their first top-flight win on home soil for a quarter of a century, after brushing aside Newcastle United 4-1.
It was not a one-sided contest. Matthias Jaissle’s visitors carved out the better openings before the interval, and Matias Fernandez-Pardo was the chief offender: he let a low cross run past him at the near post and later rounded goalkeeper Carl Rushworth, only for defender Bobby Thomas to hack his shot away on the line.
By then the hosts were already ahead. Lukas Hornicek spilled a loose ball, scrambled after it and bundled over Sidiki Cherif, and Jack Rudoni sent the sixth-minute penalty the other way. Three minutes after the restart Cherif, 19 and handed his first league start since a summer switch from Fenerbahce, drilled a low shot through a thicket of legs to open his account in sky blue.
Sven Botman’s thunderous long-range strike on 70 minutes briefly revived Newcastle. Then Frank Lampard’s bench took over: Ellis Simms scored with a deflected effort barely three minutes after coming on, and 18-year-old Stephen Mfuni, on loan from Manchester City, bent in a fourth via the post to become the club’s youngest Premier League scorer.
Coventry, now 14th and tied on points with Manchester United, travel to winless Tottenham next Monday. Lampard urged his players to stay humble, calling them “a relative underdog in pretty much every game”. Newcastle, beaten 4-1 away for a second match running, host Aston Villa on Saturday, and Jaissle apologised to the travelling fans.
