IRISH MIDFIELDER Killian Phillips earned praise from manager Patrick Vieira after the youngster made his competitive Crystal Palace debut last night.

The 20-year-old left Premier Division side Drogheda to join the Eagles on a two-year deal in January and started Tuesday’s hard-fought 2-0 win over League One side Oxford, playing the first 51 minutes of the EFL Cup tie.

Phillips has already made a number of appearances for the club’s U23 side, who are managed by ex-Ireland underage international Paddy McCarthy, and last night he was one of three senior debutants in the Palace team, alongside Sam Johnstone and 17-year-old Kaden Rodney.

Speaking to the Crystal Palace website afterwards, Vieira hailed his young players.

“I have to say I’m really pleased and think Kaden and Killian did really well. Kaden is normally a right-back and today played as a left-back. It’s not his best position but he was really composed, went forward at times and I think tactically he was really good. He is really young but showed something really interesting for us.

“In the first half, we were not into it and needed Sam to make that save in an important moment of the game. that allowed us at half-time to go in at 0-0.”

The former Arsenal player continued: “We are at the beginning of the season and the players on the field today show me every day that they want to play, they want to start. So today was a good chance for them to show me they want to play every week.

“They did it really well and that will bring more competition and make it more difficult for me to choose the starting XI. That’s what we want — everybody feels really concerned [invested] in what we want to do. We want to take those games and try to go as far as we can.”

Killian has a message ❤️💙#CPFC pic.twitter.com/NwtcIuaz1p

— Crystal Palace F.C. (@CPFC) August 23, 2022

Phillips himself briefly caught up with Palace’s social media team afterwards, saying: “Alright Palace fans, Killian Phillips here, really proud to make my debut tonight. A good win for the boys, a tough match but we pulled through. Thank you to the travelling fans for coming, the noise was unbelievable. See you next round.”