Luke Matheson was a 16-year-old schoolboy when he scored for Rochdale against Man Utd in the Carabao Cup in September 2019.
Luke Matheson in action for Macclesfield against Crystal Palace
Luke Matheson helped Macclesfield complete the biggest giant-killing in FA Cup history last month
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More than six years have passed since the moment that turned Luke Matheson into an overnight sensation at the age of 16, but he can still remember the finer details of that September night at Old Trafford.
Matheson was then a 16-year-old schoolboy at Trinity Church of England High School in Hulme, and the night after he scored for Rochdale against Manchester United in the Carabao Cup third round he was back on the school bus, refreshing Instagram and impressing his mates with his newfound fame and his new followers.
"I remember being on the bus the next morning," he said. "It was a thousand here, a thousand there, it was one of the most surreal things I’ve ever been through."
Matheson had just got his GCSE results and was a bright kid, but his future lay in football. He first played for Rochdale when he was 15, and by the time he was 17, he was signing for Premier League Wolves for £1million.
But the career path of a promising young footballer is rarely smooth. There have been loans to Scotland and Ireland and all corners of England. He never made a first-team appearance for Wolves, had a couple of years at Bolton and in the summer was down in the sixth tier, signing for upwardly mobile Macclesfield.
Now 23, Matheson is pushing for promotion with the Silkmen, but he has also been part of an FA Cup run that has gripped the nation. From the second qualifying round, Macclesfield now face Brentford in round four, having pulled off what is statistically the biggest giant-killing in cup history against Crystal Palace last month.
Matheson's goalscoring heroics against United in September 2019 took Rochdale to penalties, only for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side to squeak through. But Matheson can still remember the moment when his shot hit the back of the net in front of a sizeable away following.
"I more so remember the actual moment of the goal, it’s more the aftermath I don’t really remember," he said. "I was only just starting to break into full-time football and the first team. Only a month before I made my full league debut, so being around that environment at that age was enough for me.
"I remember doing shape the day before, speaking to senior players and asking if that means I’m going to start. Even being on that pitch, even being able to travel to that game, was enough for me. To score, it just took that game to another level.
Luke Matheson celebrates scoring against Manchester United at Old Trafford
Luke Matheson celebrates scoring against Manchester United at Old Trafford
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"I saw the ball hit the roof of the net and I just remember hearing a roar that I just ran to. I can picture the goal. I can picture the diagonal, I can picture the touch, I’ve watched it that many times, I can tell you exactly what happened."
Matheson started Macclesfield's win against Palace at Moss Rose on the bench but he has been a regular in John Rooney's side since and speaking ahead of Monday's clash with Brentford, he is a confident talker in front of the media. That was the case even as a 16-year-old, when the protective arm Rochdale had tried to put around him was tested.
"I was very lucky at the time that I had a circle of people who took me under their wing," he said. "The media team at Rochdale, after I had made my debut at 15, shunned the media and protected me from that. The United game, in their words, was something they couldn’t protect me from.
"Leanne, the media officer, took me around ITV and the BBC, and she was also there looking after me. My mum and dad were both teachers so they kept me grounded. Going away with England in school, I wasn’t allowed to go if I hadn’t done my homework."
Matheson made 31 appearances for Rochdale, and just under a third of his total senior games came before he had turned 18. He is now in what he describes as the closest dressing room he's ever experienced and has an interesting perspective on the difference between academy football and men's games.
He gave up exposure to regular first-team football to join a Premier League academy at a time when many of his contemporaries at Molineux were trying to make the opposite journey.
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"I did it backwards in a sense. I came through in a first team, then went to Wolves and came through a 23s team," he said. "In my career it almost felt like I had taken a step backwards, because what a lot of boys in 23s are doing is to try and get out into a first team.
"The goal for young kids in Premier League academies is to play men’s football. That’s what coaches like, they don’t look at if you’ve played 15 Premier League 2 games, they look at if you’ve played men’s games, whether that is National League North, National League, League One or Two.
"Academies are brilliant at developing young players but there is a limitation as to what they can offer when you start developing into an adult in the football world. That’s what is brilliant about the English pyramid, you can go to the sixth tier and it’s an incredible standard of football. When I came here I was surprised at how good this standard is."
Crystal Palace were surprised as well last month. Now Matheson and his teammates will hope to do the same to Brentford.