LOVE was in the air at Ewood Park on Saturday but it is safe to say that Mark Hughes was not feeling it.

Hughes will always be welcomed with open arms in these parts for what he achieved with Rovers as a player and as a manager.

But you would have not blamed him for wanting to find a hole or 4,000 to jump into long before the most unforgettable, remarkable and joyful of afternoons had come to an end.

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With the fifth-round tie less than an hour old ‘Hughesy, Hughesy, what’s the score?’ began to reverberate around a ground that was rocking in a way it had not rocked in a long time.

His 10-man Stoke City side, run ragged by the unplayable Josh King and left bruised and battered by the magnificent Rudy Gestede, were 4-1 down and on their way out of the FA Cup.

A Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre was on the cards.

But mercifully Gary Bowyer’s outstanding Championship team spared their broken Premier League opponents any further pain.

This is not hyperbole, Rovers were that good.

That much was clear from the sea of smiling faces that beamed around an enraptured Ewood Park.

Infectious? Too right it was and the challenge Rovers face now is proving they can produce performances as spellbinding as this on a regular basis.

Because, if they can, then who is to say they cannot reach the Wembley semi-finals and who is to say they cannot close the gap to the play-offs?

On this evidence they certainly have the strength in depth to cope with the demands of both competitions.

Rovers boss Bowyer made eight changes to the side that started the midweek league win over Rotherham United and they were no worse off for it.

No-one was more impressive than hat-trick hero King who combined his searing pace with a dead-eyed accuracy in front of goal that has too often deserted him.

Yes he was helped by Stoke’s criminally high line and their inability to cut off his supply.

King’s finishing, however, was of the highest quality, as was Rovers’ display itself.

After a nervy first 20 minutes, there was only one side in it and that side was the one wearing the famous blue and white halves.

Rovers, set up superbly by Bowyer, pressed the life out of the Potters and played with a tremendous tempo and intensity.

That said, they had to come from behind after they conceded from another set-piece, Peter Crouch stretching out one of his long legs to notch his ninth goal in his last nine games against Rovers.

It was a lead Stoke would have doubled had Simon Eastwood not saved from Mame Biram Diouf and Victor Moses and had it not been for wasteful finishing.

But King was beginning to serve notice of his threat and he fired on to the top of the bar after a cross from Craig Conway, an early substitute for the stricken Ben Marshall, found its way to the back post.

The man of the match made no mistake, however, after Shane Duffy headed a Conway corner back into the danger area.

King was running riot, so much so that the Potters had started to argue among themselves, and only Gestede will know how he failed to convert his strike partner’s pull back.

The excellent Duffy then looped a header on to the roof of the net before the tireless Chris Taylor had an effort hacked off the line.

But Rovers’ pressure paid off deep into injury time at the end of a breathless first half when Geoff Cameron hauled down King six yards from goal.

It was a definite red card and a definite penalty and top-scorer Gestede did the rest from the spot to take his tally for the term up to 14.

That is more goals than King has scored in his entire career but you would never have guessed by the way he raced on to two perfectly weighted through passes from Gestede and completed a stunning 20-minute hat-trick in the most thrilling and coolest of fashions.

The Potters’ plight was summed up by the fact that one of their hapless defenders, Marc Muniesa, pulled his hamstring in trying chase after King for his second goal.

And, with the shivers shooting down the spine and the cries of ‘Olé’ raining down from the stands, Rovers were able to enjoy the rest of the match.

Unlike, of course, Hughes, whose woes would have worsened had Jack Butland not saved from Gestede and had Conway not dragged just wide after a stirring solo run.