Manchester City goal blitz ends Rovers' 22-year-old record

Well now they have taken one off Rovers during their goal blitz against Watford at the weekend.

City ran out 8-0 winners at the Etihad as they responded to a shock defeat to Norwich seven days earlier.

They were 5-0 up inside 18 minutes, and in doing so, overtook Rovers as the fastest to score five goals in a Premier League game.

It was a record Rovers had held for 22 years, since their 7-2 demolition of Sheffield Wednesday at Ewood Park on Monday, August 22 1997.

City are no strangers to being among the goals against Watford. They won 5-0 away in May 2017, 6-0 four months later, before a 6-0 demolition in last season’s FA Cup final.

And the writing was on the wall for the Hornets as David Silva scored inside the opening minute before Sergio Aguero made it 2-0 from the spot in the seventh minute.

Riyad Mahrez (12) and Bernardo Silva (15), who would go on to get a hat-trick, continued the scoring before Nicolas Otamendi added a fifth in the 18th minute.

Bernardo added two more in the second half before Kevin De Bruyne rounded off the win five minutes from time.

As for Rovers' win over the Owls in the 1997/98 season, Kevin Gallacher scored twice in the opening seven minutes, before Benito Carbone pulled one back seconds later.

A Graham Hyde own goal made it 3-1 in the 10th minute, goal number four came from Jason Wilcox with 20 minutes on the watch before the fifth arrived from Chris Sutton in the 24th minute.

Rovers led 5-1 at that stage before Carbone pulled another back for the visitors two minutes after half-time, only to be sent off before the hour.

By that point Lars Bohinen came off the bench to add a sixth before Sutton completed the scoring for Roy Hodgson’s side.

The result was short of Rovers’ record league win, that being a 9-0 success over Middlesbrough in Division Two on November 6 1954.

Their biggest ever win came against Rossendale United in the FA Cup first round in October 1884 when they won 11-0 en route to lifting the trophy.