IT was a day to remember for young Wanderers defender Oscar Threlkeld on Saturday with an impressive first-team debut at Sheffield Wednesday.

But the Farnworth youngster is determined not to rest on his laurels and is now dreaming of a first senior Reebok outing this weekend.

The 20-year-old has been a regular for the Under-21 development side this season but was handed a promotion by Dougie Freedman to the first-team at Hillsborough after four previous inclusions in the matchday squad without figuring from the bench.

All those unused substitute appearances this season came at the Reebok against Millwall, Brighton, Wigan and Leicester a week ago.

And after coming through a big test on his debut on the road, the boyhood Whites fan admits he has to work even harder in training this week to be in with a chance of being involved against Birmingham City as Wanderers end the season on home soil.

Threlkeld said: “It would be great to make my full home debut next weekend, but all I can do is get my head down and give my all.

“It’s just going to be a case of training hard all week to prove to the manager that I can do a job and, hopefully, he will have trust in me and I’ll be involved again.”

Threlkeld was joined on the pitch on Saturday by fellow youth-team graduates Andy Kellett and Tom Youngs from the bench, while Kellett, pictured below, and Chris Lester featured against champions Leicester City in the last home outing as Freedman gives youth its chance at senior level in the final games of the Championship campaign.

Like his young team-mates, Threlkeld was thrilled to be given his opportunity, playing at right-back alongside the experience of Matt Mills, David Wheater and Tim Ream on Saturday.

He says his senior colleagues helped him settle into the game and he was pleased to mark the occasion with a win that stemmed from a blistering start of three goals inside the first half hour from Neil Danns, Chung-Yong Lee and Liam Trotter.

He told the Wanderers website: “I felt like it went well.

“I just had to focus on the game – I had a lot of encouragement from my team-mates, too, which helped massively.

“I felt as a back four we played well together – our distances were correct and even when Sheffield Wednesday kept coming at us, we stuck together and held them out.

“We were really pleased, but all credit to Sheffield Wednesday because they came out and tested us in the first 10 minutes and gave as good as they got.

“But we just defended well and hit them on the break which was ultimately the difference.

“The movement of the boys was tremendous really.

“The gaffer had said that in the first 20 minutes we needed to push them high and that’s what we did and we were rewarded with our goals.”