Local lad Danny Welbeck admits he is living the dream at Manchester United.
Although Sir Alex Ferguson promised Welbeck he would get an opportunity at United this season after doing so well during last season's loan spell at Sunderland that he broke into the England squad, the striker cannot have expected it to come so soon.
The 20-year-old has followed up his start in the Community Shield by keeping his place for the opening two Premier League matches, against West Brom and Tottenham.
He even claimed the man-of-the-match prize last night, steering United towards their 3-0 win by scoring the first and creating the second for Anderson with an impudent back-heel.
For a youngster brought up in the heart of Manchester, the Longsight district now-departed Wes Brown also hails from, the experience is proving to be a rich one.
"There is no better feeling for a Manc kid than scoring for United," he said.
"I want more of it."
Partly through choice, partly through injuries to Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand that have presented openings, Ferguson ended up with the second-youngest team he has ever selected for a Premier League game on the pitch last night.
Yet the inexperience never showed.
Ashley Young's introduction from Aston Villa has been made far easier by the time spent with Ferdinand and Wayne Rooney on England duty.
For Welbeck, Tom Cleverley, Chris Smalling and Phil Jones it has merely been an extension of the England Under-21 squad, all of which they were part of during the summer.
The interesting thing now will be to see how many of that quartet are named in Fabio Capello's senior England squad for the Euro 2012 qualifiers against Bulgaria and Wales next month.
Mentally, there are no doubts over their capability to handle such responsibility, with Welbeck and Cleverley's personal friendship extending back to almost a decade.
"I have been playing with Tom since I was a young kid," said Welbeck.
"We have a good understanding and once Chris rolled the ball back to him, I knew what kind of area it was going in. Thankfully I got my head on the end of it.
"We have both been at the academy for over 10 years, so to come through and start in the Manchester United first team is a massive achievement.
"We are so grateful to all the coaches we have had throughout the youth system. We will never forget them."
Now though, they have moved on to a much higher level.
And in assessing a bench that contained Dimitar Berbatov, Ryan Giggs, Michael Carrick and Park Ji-sung at kick-off last night, they must realise how much faith Ferguson has in them.
"It gives us confidence when the manager picks us," said Welbeck.
"We have a great squad. There is youth and experience in abundance.
"Whoever is chosen will give it their best shot but Tom and I have shown we will work hard for the team whenever we are chosen."
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Manchester United's Danny Welbeck: 'There is no better feeling for a Manc kid than scoring for United' - News - MirrorFootball.co.uk
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