KALVIN HONOURED TO MAKE DEBUT

KALVIN HONOURED TO MAKE DEBUT

Midfielder describes his first senior game for United...

Midfielder Kalvin Phillips has described the great "honour" he felt at being handed his senior United debut for Monday’s trip to Wolves, saying it is "something I’ll treasure for the rest of my life".

The 19-year-old became the latest Academy product to make the leap into the first team after Neil Redfearn named him in midfield for the narrow 4-3 defeat at Molineux.

Phillips completed the full 90 minutes in place of the suspended Rodolph Austin and received praise from Redfearn for his performance, with the head coach saying: “I thought he was a different class in there, you wouldn’t have thought it was his first game.”

The midfielder said: “It was an honour, putting the white shirt on for the first team is something that I’ll treasure for the rest of my life.

"It’s something I’ve been working hard for since I came here at Under-14s and 15s. I’ve been playing football since I was eight and have been working hard every day."

Phillips had been an unused substitute four times prior to Monday’s debut, as well as travelling with numerous matchday squads, as Redfearn waited for the right time to blood the youngster.

"He’s told me to keep my head down and keep working as hard as I can," said Phillips.

"He said ‘You’ve been playing well and you’ll get your chance. When the chance comes, take it’.

"Hopefully, after Monday’s performance, I have.

"It’s a lot easier when you’ve got people like Cookie, Mowatt, Chaz and Byram in there.

"It’s a lot easier for me to settle in."

On adjusting to the speed of Championship football, Phillips added: "It’s a lot different. I was cramping up in the last 20 minutes.

"The tempo is a lot quicker and better than it is in the Under-21s. I thought I did quite well with the physical side.

"I think we started playing better football when we went 3-1 down. Heads went down but Redders told us at half-time ‘Don’t let your heads go down because there’s always a chance to get back into it’.

"We got back into it, it was just gutting to concede right at the end."

Asked when he first knew he would be starting, the midfielder replied: "I found out on Sunday in training. Redders pulled me to one side and said ‘are you feeling alright?’

"I said ‘yes’ and he said ‘well you’re playing on Monday’.

"Then I told my mum and she wanted to tell everybody in the world. I told her to keep it quiet!"

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