New Man City first-team player emerges from landmark Champions League win

You can see Hamilton at Manchester's Palace Theatre for the next few months, but you may well be seeing the name at the Etihad for much longer.

Manchester City's latest debutant marked his first start with a terrific goal, crashing the ball past the Crvena Zvezda goalkeeper with the team's first shot of the game to show there really is no such thing as a dead rubber. Even when the big picture doesn't change, there is always space to go up or down in Pep Guardiola's estimations.

Micah Hamilton has definitely gone up after showing a blend of cool head and red-hot feet to mark his first appearance in professional football with a special moment. Having worked his way up from the academy's Under-9s, here was more proof courtesy of the 20-year-old from Crumpsall that there is a path into the best team in world football for any youngster with enough talent and commitment.

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Hamilton's first-half strike was wildly celebrated in the stands by his teammates and youth coaches at the front of one of the stands, having concluded their UEFA Youth League campaign earlier in the day. In a season of more mixed results than usual, here was more vindication for the academy.

Those with long enough memories will recall Guardiola at the beginning of the season lamenting the injuries they had in the squad, saying that they would have to play the second team at Newcastle in the Carabao Cup because of the situation. When it came to it, he then admitted that nobody was actually ready after a summer of selling the best young talent for handsome profits and apart from giving Oscar Bobb his first start the only academy presence was