The son of a Manchester United legend has made waves with an eye-catching performance on his first start for Salford City, scoring two goals and walking off with the Man of the Match award in a 4-2 victory over Wolves' Under-21s in the Football League Trophy. There is a strong Manchester United connection at Salford as the club are currently owned by a consortium headed by David Beckham and Gary Neville, who bought out fellow Class of '92 stars Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Phil Neville earlier this year.
Another star in the making?
Ruben Butt, son of former Manchester United and England midfielder Nicky, has been celebrating his first goals for Salford after helping seal an impressive win on Tuesday. The 18-year-old bagged a brace on his first start, producing two excellent finishes to ensure he was named the Man of the Match. Butt cut inside and curled a low shot past the goalkeeper for his first of the night, and then ran onto a long ball and slotted his shot between the goalkeeper's legs for his side's fourth.
AdvertisementWatch the clipButt delights in first goals for Salford
Butt spoke about his pride at opening his account for the club after the win. He told the club's media: "I had at least one in the first half maybe two. In the second half I thought, I'm going to have to score one here and I got two. Got to be happy to be honest.
"[Alex] Bruce reminded us, especially for the senior lads about how important this competition is, with the final being at Wembley. You've got to try and win every game. We went 1-0 down so we did well to react. At half time we just said we've got to win the game. Second half performance was really great, better than the first half.
"I feel like we've got a lot closer to the first team lads. They all look after us and are dead nice to us on the pitch, even if they have to shout at us and tell us what we've done wrong, it helps us. We are all familiar with the style of play that the gaffer and Brucey want from us. You've just got to work on it every day and prove that you should be given a chance. Like tonight was a great chance to prove it."
GettyFamiliar faces at Salford
The youngster is not the only familiar name at Salford. Alex Bruce, son of ex-Manchester United star Steve Bruce, is a first-team coach at the club, while former Liverpool striker Fabio Borini was also part of the XI on Tuesday night after joining Salford in October on a short-term deal.
Borini spoke about his decision to join the club after signing, telling the club's website: "It’s been great, I came in to train to keep myself fit in this transition between contracts and Salford, the Gaffer, Alex Bruce were kind enough to allow me to use the facilities and train here. Experience is one thing that I can bring, but it’s not just about the experience that I have on the pitch, it’s outside of the pitch so leading by example in training, outside training, how to manage a game. I’ve never played League Two football so I need to learn as well from my team mates the main characteristics of this league, but I will bring myself as an open book for my team mates to use me, learn from me or help me, so I’m very open to this challenge. It’s a challenge that I’m embracing and I chose to embrace because I needed the real football, something that warms my heart for football, not for anything else."