Nigeria born defender relishes ‘amazing’ debut for Crystal Palace 

Nigeria born defender Tayo Adaramola was over the moon to be handed his first Crystal Palace start in their 2-1 FA Cup victory over Stoke City.

The young left-back played 65 minutes in the fifth round win against the Potters, before being substituted by Jeffrey Schlupp with 25 minutes remaining.

Adaramola told Palace TV: “It was an amazing feeling and a feeling I’ll never forget. I’m just happy that I was able to do this with my family and friends here. Happy moment for me and happy moment for the academy.

“I’ll take it [my performance] as a first game. It’s steady progress so hopefully I can build on that and try and get more games, and get more minutes in the future.

“This was a great game against a Championship club, so hopefully it can show that if I can do it against a Championship club, I can try against a Premier League club.

“It was perfect football weather, the rain kept getting in my eyes, that was my only problem. Other than that, good football weather, I enjoyed it.

“I’ve always thought as soon as you step on to the pitch with a lot of fans you won’t be able to hear your team-mates but it’s more tight, you can hear everything around you.

“Great finish [from Kouyate], great timing, lucky that he stayed onside but I’m happy for Cheikhou. Jairo is a great guy, he took me under his wing as soon as I came. I’m very happy for him [to score the winner].

“He went through the academy at Ajax, so he knows what it can be like when a young lad comes up and first-team players don’t really talk to them so he tries to guide us, young boys, when we come up.”