The Watford fans who gave their team a standing ovation at The Den on Saturday knew they had witnessed something special, but they probably didn’t realise they had also seen some Hornets history being made.

The 6-1 victory at Millwall has gone down in the record books because it is the first time that six different Watford players have scored in an away match since the club joined the Southern League in the 1896/87 season.

In achieving that feat, John Eustace, Jordon Mutch, Marvin Sordell, Adrian Mariappa, Danny Graham and Martin Taylor ensured the Hornets achieved their first five-goal margin of victory in an away league match since winning 5-0 at Wolverhampton Wanderers in December 1983.

Such a victory margin has only been achieved 12 times away from home – nine of those in league competitions – in the last 114 years, with Watford’s last 6-1 win on their travels coming at Swindon Town in February 1936 in Division One South. It is perhaps hoping for too much, but Watford followed that result with back-to-back 5-0 successes at home to Coventry City and then at Newport County.

Saturday’s win was the most goals the Hornets have scored in any game since the 7-4 win at Burnley in April 2003 and it was the eighth time in league history they have hit six or more on their travels.

Apart from Burnley, the last time Watford scored six was in a 6-3 victory over Grimsby Town in Division One in April 1996, while the Hornets have not won by five goals since beating Ashford Town 5-0 in the second round of the FA Cup at home in December of that year.

The last occasion Watford had six different scorers in a fixture was when Bradford City were thrashed 7-2 at Vicarage Road in December 1989, with Barry Ashby, Liburd Henry, Gary Penrice, Gary Porter, Lee Richardson and Paul Wilkinson (2) all netting.

The record number of Watford scorers in a match is seven. This has happened three times, with the most recent occasion being in October 1987 when Tony Agana, Luther Blissett, Nigel Gibbs, Peter Hetherston (2), Glyn Hodges, Iwan Roberts and Steve Terry fired the hosts to an 8-0 League Cup second round, second leg victory over Darlington.