(CNN) It only takes a second to score a goal, legendary football manager Brian Clough once famously opined.

In Shane Long's case on Tuesday, he needed just 7.69 seconds, as he charged down a clearance from Watford's Craig Cathcart before giving Southampton a record-breaking lead at Vicarage Road in their English Premier League match.

For Long, by no means a prolific goalscorer -- this was only his ninth goal in his last 84 top flight appearances -- it meant an unlikely place in the history books.

The Irishman's early strike saw him usurp former Tottenham captain Ledley King as the scorer of the Premier League's fastest ever goal.

King had scored 9.82 seconds into a game against Bradford City the 2000/01 season. Long is the second Southampton player to score inside the opening 15 seconds of a Premier League game; James Beattie took only 13.52 seconds to give the Saints the lead away at Chelsea in the 2004/05 season.

Long's goal sent him into the record books as the scorer of the Premier League's fastest ever goal.

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