Coventry-born Jamie Paterson scored his first Sky Blues goal deep into stoppage time to move them back into the Sky Bet Championship play-off places with a 1-0 victory over Portsmouth.
The midfielder joined on a free transfer in February after leaving MLS side Charlotte in August and his sumptuous volley earned Frank Lampard’s side a last-gasp victory.
Coventry dropped out of the top six after back-to-back defeats against promotion chasers Burnley and Sheffield United but Wednesday’s victory lifted them back above Middlesbrough into sixth place.
John Mousinho’s Pompey, who arrived at the CBS Arena with the second-worst away record in the league, remain three points clear of the drop zone with five games to play.
Portsmouth had thrashed the Sky Blues 4-1 in the reverse fixture in December and they almost struck first in the return when Regan Poole headed Josh Murphy’s corner off the underside of the crossbar.
The Sky Blues saw appeals for a penalty waved away by referee Gavin Ward and replays showed they had a strong case when Andre Dozzell blocked Tatsuhiro Sakamoto’s cross.
Lampard, sent off after Coventry’s 2-1 defeat to Burnley at the weekend, made one change to his starting line-up as Victor Torp replaced Jamie Allen, but the Dane left the field on a stretcher after just 20 minutes following an ankle injury.
Coventry City’s Jamie Paterson celebrates scoring his side’s winner against Portsmouth
Jack Rudoni had two chances in a matter of moments to put the hosts ahead when his shot was acrobatically blocked by Connor Ogilvie, before the midfielder headed Milan van Ewijk’s outside-of-the-foot cross inches wide.
Haji Wright had scored four goals in his previous two home outings – including a hat-trick against Sunderland – but he could only get a toe on Rudoni’s driven cross.
The USA international also saw his low shot saved by Nicolas Schmid after wriggling his way into the box.
Rudoni’s delivery was causing problems from set pieces as both Bobby Thomas and Ben Sheaf headed over the crossbar, and it was to be his cross that set up the winner.
Brad Collins started in goal once again after he was involved in the mix-up that led to Burnley’s winner last time out, and he comfortably kept out Adil Aouchiche’s low shot from distance.
Murphy also flashed his shot narrowly wide after a pacey Pompey counter-attack.
Lampard brought on Paterson, Ellis Simms and Norman Bassette in the closing stages in search of a winner, but thought they would be left to settle for a point when Liam Kitching’s header came back off the post.
However, with time almost up, Rudoni picked out Paterson and his perfect volley into the far corner delighted the majority of supporters.
The managers
Coventry’s Frank Lampard:
“The technical nature of the goal was amazing. Great skill and great agility and finish – amazing.
“And the story of ‘Patto’ himself being a Coventry fan as a kid to being without a club, coming and training with us and earning a contract.
“He’s been brilliant around the group, on and off the pitch, and he’s a quality player, so I am delighted that I brought him on.
“I know he can score, he’s done it throughout his career, but that level of goal in that moment, I think it’s a collective one for the stadium, the players and the fans because we have shown that this group has got character.
“We have shown it a few times this season and we pushed and pushed against a really difficult opponent, it’s an edgy night for us and we started to feel that.
“We didn’t play at our best, Portsmouth didn’t allow us to, but we showed incredible character to push in the second half and got what we deserved.
“You score a goal, the fans erupt and the players are excited and their fans are distraught. We had it at Norwich so I feel for them tonight.
“But for us, it just shows at the moment the club is very, very together. And we need to keep going with that.”
Portsmouth’s John Mousinho:
“It was a really difficult one because the difference between me going into the dressing room and saying what a really good point away from home and where we are now is obviously stark, and it’s just 10 seconds of football.
“93 minutes and 50 seconds of really good football and 10 seconds of madness. But we have to be realistic about that, we can’t have those moments in games where we make really poor decisions because the poor decision ends up in the back of the net.
“They gave everything but unfortunately we’re falling short and that’s the most frustrating thing.
“I think in the last three away games where we’ve come away conceding in 85 plus minutes it’s not a fitness issue, it’s not like we look like we’re dead on our feet, we put the work in and we put some really, really solid performances in.
“I think there’s a couple who have let us down tonight but for the most part [it’s] just an excellent performance. [It] should have been an excellent away performance, we could have nicked it at the end.
“It is agony, it’s going to be, there’s been so many games this year where we’ve come away from home and we’ve been beaten. Tonight’s just one of those, it blows my mind we’ve put ourselves in that position to have to defend from that point.”