Promotion-chasing Liverpool banked a record league win with a 10-1 romp over Rotherham which had Anfield purring.
The Reds were on song right from the off, with skipper Jimmy Ross skimming the woodwork during the opening exchanges.
It was Malcolm McVean who opened the scoring in front of 2,000 spectators – he'd go on to bag a hat-trick.
The result was beyond doubt within eight minutes, with a three-goal deficit already established.
Centre-forward Allan would plunder four on the day, with Ross (2) and Frank Beacon also finding the net as the Reds set a league record which, more than a century on, remains intact.
17 August 1896
Newcastle-born Tom Watson arrived at Anfield with quite a track record having led Sunderland from obscurity to the League Championship.
Another two titles followed before Liverpool chief John McKenna made a financial offer Watson couldn't refuse which saw him swap Wearside for Merseyside in 1896.
The 37-year-old was relatively young for a football manager – not that his inexperience showed as he set about turning the Reds into one of the country's top teams.
His newly-promoted side finished a respectable fifth in his first season in charge, and before the turn of the century they would reach two FA Cup semi-finals.
Watson, who was responsible for bringing legends such as Alex Raisbeck, Sam Hardy, Elisha Scott and Sam Raybould to the club, masterminded a first League Championship in 1901.
Though relegation followed three years later, the Reds bounced back with successive Second and First Division titles.
Watson's reign also brought a first Cup final in 1914, an occasion which ended in a 1-0 defeat to Burnley.
A year later, with World War I underway, he passed away. Watson would be a hard act to follow when league football commenced in 1919.
