HISTORY- On this day Efan Ekoku became the first player to score 4 goals in an EPL match

Efan Ekoku became the first player in the Barclays Premier League to score four goals. Having seen his side go behind to a 13th-minute strike by Paul Rideout, the Nigeria striker
, who 10 days earlier had scored Norwich’s first goal in European competition, struck four times in succession between the 44th and 69th minutes to put his side in control. Chris Sutton added a fifth for Norwich.


The record of Ekoku lasted less than 18 months until Andrew Cole’s five goals for Manchester United against Ipswich Town on 4 March 1995. As a scoring landmark away from home it has yet to be beaten, but has been matched six times: Gianluca Vialli (1997), Jurgen Klinsmann (1998), Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (1999), Michael Owen (2003), Andrey Arshavin (2009), Edin Dzeko (2011).
Ekoku scored 12 goals in the league for Norwich that season before moving to Wimbledon in October 1994. There he was on the scoresheet a further 37 times in 123 Barclays Premier League matches. Overall his league record is 160 appearances and 52 goals.