Manchester United left-back Luke Shaw has admitted that he is hopeful of being given the nod to start the FA Cup semi-final showdown with Tottenham Hotspur.
The 22-year-old came in for his first Premier League start since February 3 as the Red Devils saw off Bournemouth 2-0 on Wednesday evening.
Shaw was one of a handful of fringe players given a run-out by Jose Mourinho at the Vitality Stadium, with Saturday's Wembley clash against Tottenham taking priority this week.
After playing the full 90 minutes on the south coast, Shaw hopes that he has done enough to retain his place in the side.
"I think when the manager makes changes like this, people are fighting for positions and it's an opportunity for people to come in and showcase what they can do," he told the club's official website after the match.
"Everyone wants to be playing on the weekend and it's down to the manager for that and that's why I think the team was so good tonight because they know the big game is on the weekend and everyone wants to play in it and everyone wants to be in that starting XI, including me.
"Today was all about the three points. I don't think it mattered about how we performed. Of course we want to perform and have a good performance but the three points was the main objective. You could tell the mood over the last couple of days has sort of been a bit down because obviously it was a real bad result on the weekend.
"Everyone's suffered from it and we wanted to put things right today. Of course it's not going to be forgotten but as a team and for momentum going into the weekend we wanted to make sure we got the points today. I think we put in a good performance, we defended well. We attacked well when we had chances - two goals and a clean sheet is great for us."
Shaw has now played a combined 646 minutes of top-flight football this season.
Daniel Lewis
