Coventry prodigy Conor Thomas is hoping Saturday`s debut will be the first of many appearances in a Sky Blues shirt.

The midfielder, 18 highly rated by manager Aidy Boothroyd, made his first-team bow as a 72nd-minute substitute for Gary McSheffrey in Saturday's 2-1 FA Cup third-round triumph over Crystal Palace.

Thomas, who has represented England at U17 level and was recently on standby for the U18 squad, told his club's official website: "I was delighted to get on and make my debut, the main thing was that we got the win and went through to the next round. It was a good day overall.

"It`s great to get on, get my debut out of the way and hopefully I can push on from here and it`s the first of many. All the lads are great to be fair, any tips or advice they can give to me to help they do and it`s a good atmosphere.

"I think it was the right game to come on, obviously the boys did well in the first half and got the two early goals, the last 10 minutes were a bit shaky but Westy [Keiren Westwood] did well and kept us in the game.''