Coventry City earns first top-flight win in 25 years, beats Nottingham Forest 1-0
Jay Dasilva's first goal in 127 appearances ends a painful drought as Frank Lampard calls it a landmark day for the club
Twenty-five years is a long time to wait for anything. For Coventry City supporters, that wait ended on September 19, 2026, when their side beat Nottingham Forest 1-0 at the City Ground to claim their first Premier League win since April 2001.
The goal came from Jay Dasilva in the 55th minute, a player who had gone 127 appearances without finding the net for Coventry. He picked the right moment.
How it happened
The goal had an unlikely architect: goalkeeper Carl Rushworth, whose precise long ball split the Forest defense and set Dasilva free. One composed finish later, Coventry had the lead they would not relinquish.
Forest thought they had leveled in the closing stages when Igor Jesus bundled the ball home, but VAR intervened. A foul on Coventry’s Caleb Yirenkyi was spotted in the build-up, and the goal was ruled out. Coventry held on for the full three points.
The result lifted Coventry off the bottom of the Premier League table, where they had been sitting after losing all four of their opening matches without scoring a single goal. Forest, meanwhile, dropped to 12th.
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Manager Frank Lampard did not downplay the significance of the occasion. He described it as a landmark day for the club, a word that carries genuine weight when the last comparable moment was more than two decades ago.
The long road back to the top flight
Coventry’s last Premier League victory before this one came on April 16, 2001, a 1-0 win over Sunderland. That result, it turned out, could not save them from relegation. They dropped out of the top flight at the end of that season and spent the next quarter-century working their way back.
Lampard arrived in November 2024, appointed when Coventry were sitting 17th in the Championship. He steadied the ship, then pushed the club further than most had expected, securing promotion back to the Premier League for the first time in a generation.
His reward was a contract extension through 2029, signed after the promotion was confirmed.
The 2026-27 season had started poorly. Four straight defeats, no goals scored, and a place at the foot of the table.