Gareth Messenger

It is hard for one single match to define an entire season, but on April Fools’ Day in 1995, Blackburn’s victory over Everton en route to their first and only Premier League title holds extra significance for one of the key cogs in the successful machine. 

“I think the Everton game would sum up the mentality we had at the time,” according to Chris Sutton when he spoke to the Lancashire Telegraph back in 2014. “You have games when you don’t play well but you just have to get over the line. But I think we took it to the extreme that day.”

The game was extra special for those affiliated with Blackburn, and particularly Sutton himself. It was on this day, during that win against Everton that he set a Premier League record at the time: the fastest goal in the history of the competition. 

12.94 seconds Sutton’s goal was registered at. Most of us could only dream of scoring a goal that quick but it’s fair to say the speed at which the striker scored typified the Rovers’ coronation. 

It would be the fifth and final time in the campaign that the original SAS, (Alan) Shearer and Sutton, would feature on the score sheet in the same league game.

The duo both featuring the PFA Team of the Year after scoring a combined 49 goals. Sutton also hit the first hat-trick of that campaign, on 27 August 1994 in a 4-0 win over Coventry. 

His fastest goal achievement was beaten in the September of that year when Dwight Yorke struck against Coventry at the start of the 1995-96 season. 

I’m sure Sutton won’t mind that too much. He still to this day holds the record the fastest goal in the history of the Old Firm derby. Rangers versus Celtic at Ibrox in December 2002, inside 18 seconds. I think he’d prefer that one.