Youngest Notts County player Muir a 'special talent'

Kameron Muir was sent on as a late substitute in the game against Burton Albion

Notts County manager Stuart Maynard has called Kameron Muir a "special talent" after he became the youngest player to make an appearance for the club.

Schoolboy Muir was used as a late substitute in Tuesday's 2-1 EFL Trophy win at League One side Burton Albion, aged 15 years and 32 days.

He broke the record set by Jermaine Pennant, who was 15 years and 10 months when he made his debut in the same competition in 1998, and later went on to play for Arsenal and Liverpool.

"When you're the youngest player to make your debut for Notts, there's going to be loads of interest, loads of Premier League interest, but the brilliant thing with Kameron is he's so grounded. He just wants to play football and not worry about anything from the outside," Maynard told BBC Radio Nottingham.

Muir, who was only 14 when he played his first game for County's under-21s side, was one of five academy players on the pitch as Notts saw out the final minutes of the game against Burton.

"He's a special talent," said Maynard. "He performs way above his age. We didn't tell him to go and dribble to the corner flag late in the game when it was 2-1.

"If you're a young lad, a lot of the time you're looking to shoot, you want the glory, [but] his game understanding at such a young age is incredible. He went to the corner and he helped us see the game out," said Maynard.

Muir said he had not been expecting a chance with the senior side to come along so soon.

"My dad, after school, called me and my mum into the front room and said 'I got news for you - you are in the squad for the first team on Tuesday’. I was out of words, I didn’t know what to say," he said.

Muir spotted his parents in the stand at the end of the game and told BBC Radio Nottingham: "It was brilliant, they looked proud. really proud, which made me smile. It’s a good feeling.

"Some of my teachers were here as well - they came to watch and are proud of me. When I was warming up down there they were asking for pictures and that."

He had to be pushed towards the celebrating Notts fans by manager Maynard and said: "I couldn’t think of anything [to do]. Everything was going through my mind. I thought he meant for me to go shake their hands or something."

'Really good batch of youngsters'

Maynard plans to continue giving the club's youngsters opportunities when appropriate, perhaps even in League Two.

"I think as a management team, if you look at our record going back to Wealdstone, we believe if you're good enough, you're old enough," he said.

"And you saw that the other night, they didn't just come in to make the numbers up, they came an performed to a very high level against League One opposition, who didn't really have a lot of youngsters in their group.

"We've got to make sure we manage it. Even though they performed to a very high level we can't bring them in too early because coming into League Two is very difficult and a lot to ask, but five or six of them train with us most days now."

Maynard continued: "If you look at the young lads coming through, I think we've got a really good batch. You can never predict in the future whether they will play regular games in our first team, but at the minute they're progressing very well and it's huge credit to our academy staff and I think it bodes well for the future.

"I do believe there is a pathway here. When you look at Premier League clubs it's very hard to have a pathway."

Much of the attention will be on Muir, and Maynard believes his studies at school should be his main focus for the time being.

He added: "You never know in football what's round the corner, but he's a very level-headed kid. When they're that young, they can get so excited and get ahead of themselves, thinking they've made it as a footballer.

"But when he comes in to training he's so humble. The way he's dealt with making his debut, you can tell he's a great lad and he's on the right path.

"To be the youngest ever player to make his debut for Notts is incredible, but we've got to manage the expectation of everyone around it. We can't hype him too much because he's a very young lad and he's got a lot to learn, but he knows that and he's very mature in the way he plays the game."