Harris looks to follow in Le Saux’s footsteps

Luke Harris comes on as a substitute to make his Premier League debut for Fulham on Thursday night Picture: MALCOLM ELIAS (34513766) (34513791)

Luke Harris became the first Jersey-born player to play top-flight English football for over 17 years when he came on as a substitute for Fulham in Thursday night’s win over Aston Villa.

The talented 17-year-old has been warming the bench for the first team all season, but, with Fulham three goals to the good, manager Marco Silva decided, with three minutes of normal time remaining, it was the right time to give Harris his first taste of Premier League football.

The former St Clement and Le Rocquier pupil replaced Andreas Pereira in the number 10 role behind the striker.

As expected, his involvement was minimal with only seven minutes on the field of play after added time, with a handful of touches and conceding a foul.

However, he got a huge roar from the Craven Cottage faithful when he came on the pitch.

Fulham fans have been waiting patiently for his moment to come and they hold him in high esteem thanks to his goalscoring exploits for the U23 team.

With Fulham up to ninth place in the Premier League with a squad full of experienced and established stars, chances for Harris to make an impact may be few are far between for a little while to come, but there is no doubt that Silva and his coaching team rate Harris very highly and this could be the start of many more Premier League outings.

The last player from the Island to play in the Premier League was Graham Le Saux, who made his last appearance in a 2-1 defeat to Manchester United on 15 May 2005 playing for Southampton. Harris was just 42 days old at the time.

Harris has a long way to go to match the career of Le Saux, who played in 402 top flight matches for Chelsea (two spells), Blackburn Rovers and Southampton.

The left back also won 36 caps for England and played at the 1998 World Cup in France. He also won the Premier League with Blackburn and the League Cup, Uefa Cup Winners’ Cup and Uefa Super Cup with Chelsea in 1998.

Only two other Jerseyman have played top flight football post-war in England: Geoff Vowden (though born in Barnsley), the uncle of current Jersey FA president Bradley Vowden, made a number of appearances in the old First Division for Nottingham Forest and Birmingham City as a centre forward between 1960 and 1965. And another forward, Chris Jones, played for Tottenham Hotspur in the top division in the 1970s and early 80s.

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