Stoke City youngster Olly Shenton has expressed his desire to "impress" manager Mark Hughes over the coming weeks and months.
The 16-year-old is the third-youngest player to have represented the club following his recent outing against Portsmouth in the League Cup.
However, despite having insisted that he has remained grounded, the midfielder is eager to feature in the senior squad again.
"Every day when I go into training now I'm thinking I've been there once and I want to go again. I'm trying to keep my feet on the ground. Being with the Under-21s is still good, but I want to be pushing for the first team all the time," he told The Sentinel.
"Ryan Shotton was the last local lad to come through, so it's been a while. I speak to Andy Wilkinson and he says I'm so lucky being a Stokie as that means the fans will automatically love me.
"I've got to keep working hard in training. If I'm with the Under-21s I've got to try to impress, and if I get more chances to train with the first team then I must make sure I impress the manager. I would like to think there's a chance I could get another run before too long and I have to make sure that if it comes along I take it."
Shenton only collected his GCSE results last month.
Liam Apicella
