Charlie McNeill reveals he was 'buzzing' to make his Manchester United debut earlier this season.
The promising young striker, to his own surprise, was substituted in late on in the 1-0 defeat to Real Sociedad in the Europa League. As a childhood United fan, the fact his first appearance was playing up front alongside Cristiano Ronaldo made it even sweeter.
“I’ve always loved Ronaldo since he first played for United before going to Real Madrid," he told the South Wales Argus. “I just loved him and fortunately enough I got to make my debut and was playing up front with him. That was just surreal, a dream come true.
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“I thought I was getting close [to a debut] a couple of times and then the new manager [Erik ten Hag] came in and I’d been training really well.
“He saw that and put me in the squad but I didn’t think that I would come on because we were getting beaten 1-0. He put me on and I was just buzzing to play in front of 75,000.”
The 19-year-old hasn't been able to add to his six minutes for Ten Hag just yet and left the club on loan for the rest of the season in January, joining Newport County and a relegation scrap at the bottom of League Two. McNeill was delighted with his first senior goal two weeks back and is learning an awful lot playing competitive football.
“It was everything that I've dreamt of. The feeling was just unbelievable with all the lads celebrating and congratulating me, and it was even better to get the win as well. It was just perfect,” the striker added.
“I was just buzzing and there was a bit of relief as well because I had come so close in past games. Now I’ve got it a feel more confident and that I can go on and score a couple more.
“I wanted to come out on loan to get experience in men’s football and coming here and having played 11 games already so far it has been a massive learning curve,.
“I've learned a lot in just 11 games, it’s been really good and I am just excited to kick on for the last nine, I can’t wait.
“It has been tough physically but I’ve really enjoyed that, going up against defenders, challenging for headers, the ugly side of the game that I really need to work on.
“I don’t mind that and in the first game I got one right to the back of my head and the defender was like ‘welcome to League Two!'"
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