Peter Leven has hailed 16-year-old Fletcher Boyd after the Aberdeen teenager came off the bench to score on his debut.
Boyd was an influential part of Aberdeen under-18s league triumph earlier this week, and his return of over 30 goal contributions at youth level earned him a spot among the Reds substitutes for Sunday's Scottish Premiership visit to face Hibernian at Easter Road.
Goals from Leighton Clarkson, Dante Polvara and Bojan Miovski had Aberdeen in the ascendancy before Boyd was introduced on 83 minutes.
And the attacker was instantly involved with taking a corner then capped off his first senior appearance by smashing the ball high beyond Hibs goalkeeper, Joseph Wollacott, to ensure an impressive 4-0 victory.
Interim boss, Leven, was delighted with the 2008 born sensation as he paid tribute to the travelling Red Army for chanting his name after the full-time whistle.
He said: “Just to get his debut is amazing but to score wow, he will never forget that.
“The fans were unbelievable and for them to sing ‘Fletcher Boyd, he’s one of our own’ is a fairytale for him.
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“Fletcher has been brilliant this season for the U18’s and they won the league the other day.
“He has contributed to more than 30 goals in the 18’s and has just turned 16.”
Asked if he'd always planned to give the Pittodrie starlet a chance before the season reaches a conclusion, he continued: "It 100 percent shows if you are good enough you are old enough.
“There’s a pathway at this club as the academy has done amazing this year.
“It hopefully shows the other boys there is a pathway.
“I told Fletcher on Saturday he would be in the squad. We obviously left him after Friday’s result and let him celebrate with his team-mates a little bit.
“Then we told him he was in the squad. Then I pulled him before we left that he is on the bench.”
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Aberdeen are on track to finish top of the bottom six group, and Leven has seen them become a lot more solid defensively throughout a seven game unbeaten league run.
And Leven reckons the Dons are starting to show signs that they are a top team.
“That opening 20 minutes annoyed me a little bit as we were dragged all over and we started following them into spaces we didn’t want to go," he recalled.
“They are good players but we need a bit more discipline.
“But when we are on it and pass the ball and move it at speed we are a top team and showed that again today.
“I’m delighted with the clean sheet again. The last two games we won 1-0, 1-0 and should have scored more. Today we did that.”
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