If ever there was validation needed for attack being the best form of defence, Frank Lampard can point to this game. Coventry climbed out of the relegation zone after their second successive win showcased the benefits of their manager’s willingness to balance risk with reward.
Late goals from substitutes Ellis Simms and Stephen Mfuni allowed promoted Coventry to pull away from a Newcastle side who, after a strong start to the season, also lost their last game, at Leeds, by this scoreline.
Indeed Newcastle could have gone fourth in the Premier League with victory but, despite dominating for long spells and missing several very presentable chances, they could not argue with what turned into a dismantling.
Even after Sven Botman had reduced the deficit to 2-1 with 20 minutes remaining, and Newcastle threatened to take charge, Coventry insisted on leaving two or three players right up front. It was a bold and brave move and Lampard, who has warned supporters to expect this approach throughout this first season back in the elite since 2000/01, deserves great credit. On other days, they might come unstuck, but here it was a case of who dares, wins.
It was 25 years since John Hartson last scored a goal at home for Coventry in the Premier League, so it felt significant when Jack Rudoni stepped up to take his penalty in the sixth minute.
The pre-match atmosphere had been ramped up anyway after three weeks of international football had left Sky Blues fans longing for more after their victory away to Nottingham Forest.
So as Ephron Mason-Clark chased Brandon Thomas-Asante’s pass in from the right, more in hope than anticipation, and Lukas Hornicek could only flap at the ball, the vast majority of the CBS Arena seemed to take to their feet to appeal for the spot-kick as Sidiki Cherif went to ground on feeling contact from the Newcastle goalkeeper as they contested the loose ball.
Rudoni composed himself before slotting home his penalty left-footed, sending Hornicek the wrong way, to rocket the stadium into raptures. The sense of community was underlined as Coventry’s attacking midfielder lifted his shirt to offer the message ‘Get well soon Nan’.
Newcastle had plenty of space and ball just about every time they attacked. But the risk-and-reward strategy from Lampard meant Coventry were dangerous in the extreme on the transition.
On his first Premier League start since signing from Fenerbache for £21m in the summer, Cherif opted to shoot straight and weakly at Hornicek when on one such counterattack Rudoni was all but free in the middle.
The Coventry manager has accepted his team will give up chances, but is adamant they will attack and not just sit back and wait for more experienced teams to break them down. They had Bobby Thomas to thank for denying Newcastle not once but twice before the interval. Firstly the centre-back headed off the line after Jacob Murphy turned Harvey Barnes’ superb far-post cross back in and past Carl Rushworth. Then when Matias Fernandez-Pardo raced ahead of him on to a superb through pass, rounded Rushworth and shot goalwards, Thomas’s recovery run allowed him to clear.
Only time will tell whether Coventry’s £100m summer investments will provide sufficient quality for the club to stay up, but certainly the quantity is there. There was £70m in new talent not in the starting XI here.
Taiwo Awoniyi might have been many promoted team’s big signing, at £17m from Nottingham Forest, though his absence through a three-game suspension has opened the way for Cherif.
The 19-year-old forward is evidently not the finished product but he has raw attributes from which Coventry can build. Three minutes into the second half he had scored his first goal in the Premier League.
When Malick Thiaw headed a long throw out of the penalty area, Cherif’s first touch set him up to swivel and strike a crisp drive that swished through four pairs of plum-coloured stockings and beyond Hornicek’s grasping fingers. Then Cherif could have put the game out of Newcastle’s reach. Botman horribly miscued Thomas-Asante’s cross from the right and there unmarked was Cherif. He clunked his sidefooted shot wide from six yards out.
That miss was made to look all the more important as Botman was allowed to wander forwards unchallenged before belting a shot into the top corner of Rushworth’s goal with 20 minutes left to play.
Simms made it 3-1 after the excellent Asante-Thomas nicked the ball on the edge of the area for the striker to shoot home in the 81st minute. There was still time for Thomas-Asante to shoot against the post before victory was emphatically sealed when Mfuni twinkle-toed his way into the penalty area to strike in left-footed.
