The last time Coventry City won a game in the English top flight, Tony Blair was in Downing Street and people were playing Snake on their phones. John Hartson headed in against Sunderland at Highfield Road in April 2001. Then came 9,287 days of nothing.
That run ended at the City Ground on Saturday. Jay Dasilva scored, Coventry held on, and a corner of the Bridgford Stand went up like it was a cup final.
A quarter of a century of Sky Blue misery
What happened in between is hard to compress. Relegation in 2001, then eleven seasons in the second tier. League One in 2012. Administration and points deductions. A long, bitter row over the rent at the Ricoh Arena from 2013 that ended with Coventry playing home games in Northampton, 34 miles from their own city. In 2017 they dropped into the fourth tier for the first time since 1958.
Plenty of the supporters at Forest sat through all of it. That is why the noise at full time sounded the way it did.
Lampard: they dug in for each other
"It's been a tough opening for us, so those first Premier League points feel great," 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."
What makes the result stand up is where it came from. Coventry had been beaten 5-0 at home by Brighton in their previous game. Lampard has been telling his squad that hits like that are part of the deal when you come up, and that the answer is in how quickly you get off the floor.
"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," he said on Match of the Day.
Win number 100
Coventry had been stuck on 99 Premier League wins since 2001. Saturday finally took them into three figures. Dasilva's goal was also their first in the English top flight since Mustapha Hadji scored in a 3-2 defeat by Aston Villa on 5 May 2001.
Lampard is not letting anybody get carried away. Survival is the job, and he knows a single away win does not settle it. "We'll keep our feet on the ground because it is one win, but it was needed for us," he said.
Needed, and a long time coming.
Match facts: Nottingham Forest 0-1 Coventry City, City Ground, Saturday 19 September 2026. Scorer: Jay Dasilva. Coventry's first top-flight win since 1-0 v Sunderland on 14 April 2001, and their 100th Premier League victory. Previous game: 0-5 at home to Brighton.
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