DEBUTANT Daniel Adu-Adjei shared his pride and delight over making his first professional appearance at the end of Cherries’ FA Cup win over Queens Park Rangers.

The 18-year-old replaced Philip Billing in the 87th minute with Cherries defending a 3-2 lead, second-half goals from Marcus Tavernier, Kieffer Moore and Justin Kluivert rectifying a half-time scoreline of 2-0 in the favour of QPR.

A prolific goalscorer for Alan Connell’s development squad in the Professional Development League this season, Adu-Adjei has frequently trained with Andoni Iraola’s first team squad.

Speaking after the game, Adu-Adjei told the Daily Echo: “Really proud and happy to have made my debut and looking forward to kicking on, hopefully trying to make as many more (appearances) as I can.”

This time last year Adu-Adjei had yet to experience senior football, joining Cherries’ non-league neighbours Poole Town on loan in February.

He believes the stint in the Southern League served him well, sharing: “I've just tried to use that Poole experience as much as I could to sort of get used to men's football and playing with men and that sort of physical challenge, as well as obviously the sharpness and the fitness of it.

“So I'm trying to use that as much as I can in this game.”

Although Adu-Adjei was feeding off scraps during his brief cameo, Cherries focused on seeing out their lead, there was a big cheer for the youngster after winning his side a free-kick up in the corner of QPR’s half.

“That felt really good,” he recalled.

“Especially to have my brother in there as well.

“It was a really proud moment and really happy to have played as much of a part as I could.”

Adu-Adjei added to BBC Radio Solent: “It felt good to do it in front of so many fans as well, because a lot of them travelled.

“To get the win and go on to the next round is another positive.

“It’s more of like a shock (coming on), and you sort of don’t know how to cope with it.

“I just had to tell myself that it is just another game of football, and I’ve done that so many times before.

“Just tried to keep as level-headed as I can, and focus on what I had to do.”

Having turned out in front of hundreds of spectators at Poole Town, the biggest crowd Adu-Adjei had previously experienced was the 1,360 scattered around Fratton Park for the Hampshire Senior Cup final against Basingstoke back in May 2023.

There was close to 10 times the amount of fans at QPR’s Loftus Road.

Asked by the Echo if that was the biggest crowd he had played in front of, the striker replied: “Definitely.

“Think the most was probably, Hampshire Cup (final), maybe high hundreds.

“So it was really good to play (in front of) a much bigger crowd in a stadium.

“Hopefully looking to try and make as many appearances as I can and keep pushing in the under-21 league as well.

“Hopefully try and win that.”