Coventry City promoted to Premier League after Portsmouth score 97th-minute winner vs Boro
Coventry City are headed back to the Premier League for the first time since 2001 after securing promotion from the Championship, partially through their own doing but largely thanks to Portsmouth's 97th-minute winner to beat Middlesbrough on Saturday. MORE — Premier League promotion race Frank Lampard's side only needed to beat last-place Sheffield Wednesday (currently on minus-4 points due to deductions), but the Sky Blues couldn't find a goal and slumped their way to a second straight draw. That meant that 4th-place Boro would have to lose to 22nd-place Pompey for Coventry to go up this weekend.
For 96 minutes, Portsmouth attempted just one shot in the game (in the 67th minute) and another scoreless draw looked certain to extend Coventry's promotion chase another few days. Then came Conor Chaplin's left-footed finish in the 97th minute, turning home a corner kick and sparking celebratory scenes nearly 200 miles to the south. Next up for Coventry to check off the list is a long-awaited piece of silverware.
The Sky Blues haven't won a major trophy since they lifted the FA Cup in 1987. They currently have a 10-point lead on 2nd-place Ipswich Town, who have two games in hand, with four left to play themselves. Barring an almighty collapse, Lampard and Co.
, will go down in the history books as the heroes who restored a massive club — fraught with financial turmoil in recent years decades — to where it belongs.