Blackpool towered over the Barclays Premier League after a sensational return to top flight life as they destroyed Wigan Athletic.
The team Ian Holloway has constructed on half a shoe-string proved to be too well organised, too determined and frankly, too good for a Wigan outfit bereft of any quality.
In their first appearance at the highest level since 1971, Blackpool struck three times before the break to effectively wrap up the points in quite staggering fashion.
New-boy Marlon Harewood scored twice after Gary Taylor-Fletcher had put the visitors in front. Alex Baptiste profited from more suspect goalkeeping by Chris Kirkland to ensure Wigan were well and truly squashed by this group of Tangerines and draw ironic chants of "Bring on the Arsenal" from the visiting supporters, who head for the Emirates next week.
If Blackpool had taken any notice of the words that were said and written about them this week, they would not even have bothered to make the short journey south from their seaside base.
The Premier League has a relatively short history but since the competition was formed in 1992, no side has been written off quite so mercilessly.
MORE REMARKABLE
Nothing can be read into a single performance. Last season's results include a Burnley triumph over Manchester United from August 2009.
But days like this will never be forgotten. It might not be in the class of the 1953 "Matthews" final. But those who were there will never forget the massacre at the DW Stadium.
Blackpool's performance was made all the more remarkable by the knowledge Harewood, along with Elliot Grandin and the sturdy Craig Cathcart, were not even at Bloomfield Road at the start of the week.
The writing was on the wall from the second minute, when Brett Ormerod twice failed to turn home relatively simple chances from the centre of the six-yard box.
Harewood also put a header wide and the sense of foreboding among the home support began to grow.
Those worries turned out to be completely justified.
INCREDIBLE DAY
When the excellent Charlie Adam found Harewood, Ormerod made his way across the box, dragging a couple of defenders with him before allowing the ball to run on to Taylor-Fletcher at the far-post.
For a play-off scorer at Wembley, tapping home unmarked was easy.
A second should have followed when Harewood was sent clean through, only for Kirkland to make an excellent save.
It was a brief reprieve. The next time Harewood got hold of the ball, he tried his luck from the edge of the area. Kirkland appeared to have the effort covered but somehow allowed the ball to slip through his grasp.
Two minutes before the break Kirkland failed to hold a Grandin effort and Harewood tapped home the rebound.
The home supporters were drowned out by the celebrations amongst the visiting fans, who could not have imagined in their wildest dreams that their top flight return would turn out quite like this.
Steve Gohouri had a goal disallowed at the start of the second period that might have made a difference and Mauro Boselli saw his angled header clip the bar.
But that sea of orange will gorge on this incredible day for a long time and when Baptiste caught Kirkland out with a shot from the touchline that crept in at the near-post, for a while at least, it left them looking down on Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United and the rest.
Chelsea had not yet played of course. But no-one really cared about that.
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