Ipswich Town midfielder Jack Taylor has spoken of his pride at pulling the Blues' shirt on for the first time in a competitive game - and delight at scoring in front of his parents.
The £1.5m summer signing made his debut last night as the Blues comfortably handled Bristol Rovers 2-0 in front of more than 15,000 fans at Portman Road.
And Taylor wasted no time making an impact, sweeping home Town's first goal from a flowing move just 12 minutes in.
He said: "It was obviously a great night, but the main objective was to go through – in a cup competition you just want to get to the next round.
"But obviously to get a goal was the icing on the cake for me.
"It was a great goal. We work on patterns like that every day in training, so for it to come off, especially so early in the game, was perfect.
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"Omari did so well – I thought he was going to swing with his right foot, but thank god he let it go to me.
"I’m just delighted to score. My mum and dad were here, so I was very proud to score in front of them.”
He added: "I was very proud tonight to put the jersey on – especially in front of a (good) crowd. I didn’t expect so many fans to come out tonight, that was really good.
"They were so good tonight, they kept us going. We’re looking forward to Saturday now."
Asked about the club's ambitions in the cup, with a second round trip to Reading coming up at the end of the month, he said: "We want to win every game that’s before us.
"The gaffer said to us before that we want to win every single game – we want to go as far as we can in this.
"We’ve got a big enough and a good enough squad to go a long way in this.”
Now, of course, attentions turn to Saturday's Championship home opener with Stoke City.
And Taylor said he's hoping to break into the starting XI for league clashes sooner rather than later.
"That’s the aim – I want to get into that (league) 11," he stressed. "I’m going to keep working and hopefully I’ll get there soon.
"I feel like every day in training the gaffer’s drilling into me how he wants me to play and how he wants me to bring my style to the side.
“There’s still things to work on, but I think we’ll get there – I’m really enjoying my time here.”
He added: "Playing in front of the fans here for the first time was really special. I’m just looking forward to getting out there again."
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