Blackburn boss Jon Dahl Tomasson hailed the club’s academy as teenage debutants Thomas Bloxham and James Edmondson both netted in an
8-0 Carabao Cup hammering of Harrogate.
Second-half substitutes Bloxham, 18, and Edmondson, 17, joined John Buckley (2), Jake Garrett, Sam Gallagher, Dilan Markanday and Zak Gilsenan as Rovers romped to their biggest victory since 1963 and earned a third round home tie against Cardiff.
Tomasson said: “It’s fairly rare to score eight goals in a competitive match and we have all seen before how tough these games can be but we produced a very professional and mature performance.
“We showed intensity right from the beginning in a competition that I take seriously and it was a perfect day for the academy with players getting their first minutes and goals for the senior team.”
Tomasson made 10 changes from the side that won 1-0 at Watford on Sunday with home boss Simon Weaver also surprisingly fielding eight different players to the starting XI that kicked off the weekend’s 2-0 victory over Morecambe.
Weaver conceded that the result was an “embarrassing” night for the Sulphurites, who were hosting Championship opposition in a competitive fixture for the first time in their history.
“We had important players missing through injury, but I can’t defend a really bad, embarrassing scoreline like that,” he admitted.
“The gulf in class was obvious and we gifted them the first two goals in that opening 13-minute spell.
“It’s hard to then come back and overcome the odds against a Championship team with quality running right through the squad but, as devastated as we are and having taken some stick that was quite rightly directed at us, we have to move on quickly because what’s most important now is we put right a few wrongs here in the league on Saturday.”
