Harrogate Town 0-8 Blackburn: Rovers get biggest away win in their 148-year history

Blackburn academy product Jake Garrett's two senior goals have both come in this season's Carabao Cup

Blackburn Rovers recorded the biggest away win in their 148-year history as they thrashed League Two Harrogate Town 8-0 in the second round of the Carabao Cup.

Jake Garrett and Sam Gallagher each scored in the space of three first-half minutes to put the Championship side in a commanding position inside a quarter of an hour.

John Buckley got Rovers' third from six yards out before Dilan Markanday scored the fourth in first-half stoppage time.

Buckley scored his second from the penalty spot soon after the restart and Zak Gilsenan converted a free-kick, before goals on their senior debuts for teenagers Thomas Bloxham and James Edmondson completed the rout.

The victory set up a third-round home tie against fellow Championship side Cardiff City.

Rovers last scored eight goals in a game in their previous record away win when they were 8-2 winners at West Ham in the old First Division on Boxing Day in 1963.

The result was the biggest win for Rovers in any game since a 7-0 win over Nottingham Forest at Ewood Park in November 1995 when Alan Shearer scored a hat-trick for the then-reigning Premier League champions.

Twenty-year-old midfielder Garrett, who got his first Rovers goal in the last round, provided a ruthless left-footed finish low into the opposite corner after Gallagher had turned a loose pass into his path.

Soon after Buckley's lofted ball over the backline released Gallagher who took a touch before slotting into the bottom corner.

A full throttle opening quarter also saw Town's Jack Muldoon have a one-on-one effort well saved before Rovers' Markanday had a shot from 12 yards turned around the post after the hosts had been caught in possession.

Zak Gilsenan's curling free-kick made it 6-0 to Rovers

Gallagher then put Andrew Moran through and the Brighton loanee reached the byeline before turning the ball into Buckley's path to make it 3-0 as Rovers looked imperious.

Muldoon flashed an effort wide of the Rovers goal six minutes before the break, but the visitors kept up the pressure as Markanday's low right-footed effort from the edge of the box crept into the far corner after some good build-up play.

Gilsenan came close soon after the restart before Buckley converted from the spot after Sondre Tronstad was brought down in the box.

Gilsenan sublimely curled a free-kick around the wall for the sixth midway through the second half and 18-year-old Bloxham drove into the box five minutes later and finished low into the corner.

It got worse for Harrogate when 17-year-old Edmondson ran in on goal after some superb one-touch passing before he slotted home Blackburn's eighth with 15 minutes still remaining.

But Harrogate keeper Mark Oxley prevented Blackburn notching double figures as he did well to save from Gilsenan and Edmondson in the closing stages.

Harrogate Town manager Simon Weaver told BBC Radio York:

"The first 13 minutes offered every encouragement to Blackburn that they could coast to victory, and we're not used to that and we were disappointed by that start.

"When your own fans mock you and say it could be 10 it's a bit of a low point, but this is where we show character and I guess we'll be judged tonight, but more accurately judged from our League Two performances throughout the season.

"Blackburn have a great squad of players, full of top Championship quality and these days there is a gulf in class and it was seen tonight.

"But I think if you go in at half-time 4-0 down you know it's going to be a long evening, and as much as you want to win the second half you certainly don't want to be conceding goals - and it could have been more really - and that's the embarrassing fact about it."

Blackburn Rovers head coach Jon Dahl Tomasson told BBC Radio Lancashire:

"It was an incredibly rare win to score eight goals in a competitive game.

"Eight great goals, a clean sheet, seven different goalscorers and I stopped counting with all those young guns who got their first starts and got minutes today.

"We were mature and played a professional game because we all know those games can be extremely difficult - we made a couple of upsets last season in the cups beating Leicester away, beating West Ham away.

"I take this cup very seriously, but the key to the game was the work in the final third which we have been doing the whole season, and all those principles where the players did a lot of the right things and had the intensity and the right attitude from the beginning of the game."