When Odion Ighalo scored his tenth goal of the season yesterday to secure Watford’s third successive Premier League win by beating Sunderland, he also netted for the 30th time in the league for the Hornets. Those goals have come in just 51 appearances. It is a record without equal in the past 52 years at the Vicarage Road side.

Watford Mailing List’s Jon Sinclair has provided the list below of the number of appearances it took each stated player to score his 30th league goal for Watford and it shows only five have reached it quicker than Ighalo. Furthermore, only two – Dennis Uphill and Dai Ward – have achieved it in fewer appearances than the Nigerian international since the end of World War Two.

Frank McPherson heads the list with his 30th goal coming in just 24 appearances in the 1928/29 season. Second and third places are also occupied by players from the 1920s and 30s, George James and Fred Pagnam.

The player fastest to 30 league goals in appearance terms in the post-war era is Dennis Uphill, who reached the milestone in 42 matches in the 1959/60 season when he and Cliff Holton scored 72 of the 92 goals Watford netted in winning promotion from the old Division Four.

Apart from Uphill, the other player to score 30 league goals in fewer appearances than Ighalo in the post-war era is Dai Ward. He achieved it in 48 appearances at the start of the 1963/64 campaign.

The 26-year-old is one of four players to hit the 30-mark in 51 league appearances for Watford along with Holton, Len Dunderdale and Roy Brown but, perhaps of greater significance, no player has reached the milestone quicker in the club’s history in the top two divisions.

Ighalo’s 30 league goals have come in 37 starts and 14 substitute appearances. However, the 26 he has scored in 2015 have been netted from just 28 starts and six outings off the bench.

Appearances to get to 30 league goals for Watford including play-off games

24 – Frank McPherson

29 – George James

38 – Fred Pagnam

42 – Dennis Uphill

48 – Dai Ward

51 – Roy Brown, Len Dunderdale, Cliff Holton, Odion Ighalo

52 – William Lane

53 – George Edmonds

55 – Cyril Thompson

57 – William Sheppard

60 – Paul Furlong

67 – Jimmy Bowie, Marlon King

68 – Matej Vydra

69 – Paul Wilkinson

73 – Terry Garbett

74 – Danny Graham

75 – Dave Thomas

77 – Tommy Barnett

78 – Henry Lowe

79 – Keith Mercer

81 – Bill Devan

82 – Billy Jennings

83 – Maurice Cook

84 – Ralph Evans

85 – Luther Blissett

86 – George Harris

89 – Taffy Davies

99 – John Barnes

102 – Charles White

108 – Darius Henderson

111 – Heidar Helguson, Alan Mayes

113 – Freddie Bunce

117 – Troy Deeney, Ross Jenkins

131 – Tommy Smith

136 – Johnny Meadows

139 – Gifton Noel-Williams

151 – Peter Walker

166 – Nigel Callaghan

186 – Tommy Mooney

211 – Dennis Bond

218 – Stewart Scullion

222 – Gary Porter

238 – Frank Smith