Young Dylan delivers in test against the leaders
PHIL Jagielka had already played more than 100 times for Sheffield United and was in the Blades’ team beaten 3-1 by Nottingham Forest at the City Ground on the day Derby County defender Dylan Williams was born.
Curtis Davies was 18 at the time and eyeing a debut for Luton Town.
Williams, who turned 18 on Monday, lined up alongside Jagielka and Davies for his first League start in Tuesday’s Championship clash against leaders West Bromwich Albion at The Hawthorns.
Young or experienced, the 14 players who featured – 11 starters and three substitutes – produced a compact team performance to emerge with a goalless draw that earned plaudits for its resilience.
The fixture did not earn a place in the drawer of ‘memorable classics’ but it will remain etched in the memory of Williams.
His two previous starts for the first team came in Carabao Cup ties against Salford City and Sheffield United last month.
Starting in the Championship was the next step for the youngster and he delivered a mature performance.
“I thought he was excellent,” manager Wayne Rooney said.
“To come to West Brom, top of the league, a difficult team to play against, and so the biggest compliment I can give him is putting him in for this game, his first League start, and he didn’t let anyone down.”
Williams is a second-year scholar and has jumped from the youth team to the senior side.
“It was an amazing feeling to be out there with the team,” Williams told RamsTV.
“The gaffer has trust in me and we were playing the team that is top of the league. I remember only last year I was playing against West Bromwich Albion with the under-18s, so to be playing against their first-team at Championship level is an unbelievable feeling.
“I was nervous when the whistle went to kick off but I believed in myself. I know what I am capable of and I would like to think I showed it out there. It’s the best birthday present and I couldn’t have asked for anything more.
“I have my standards and I’m not going to let them drop.
“I can only build off this and fingers crossed, I will have more starts in the future.
“We knew it was going to be a scrappy game, we got told that beforehand, so we needed to put our bodies on the line, and we had to feed off each other’s performance.
“Not one person gave in and we got the result we wanted. But we could come away from these games with a win if we just create that one opportunity to score, that will hopefully come.”
Williams was previously on the books at Wolverhampton Wanderers and joined the Rams under-18 squad ahead of last season.
At 16, he was the youngest player in Derby’s team that faced Chorley in an FA Cup third round tie last season.
The game saw a mixture of under18 and under-23 players take on the non-League side after the entire first team had been forced to isolate during the Covid-19 pandemic.