Freddie Potts has worked his entire career for moments like these.
With 59 minutes played at Hill Dickinson Stadium, and with West Ham United trailing Everton 1-0, he was summoned from the bench by new Head Coach Nuno Espírito Santo with just one thing on his mind - to help his side salvage a result.
The 22-year-old Academy graduate had only stepped on to the pitch in the Premier League once before, but was not fazed by the occasion and played his part as Jarrod Bowen’s 65th-minute strike earned the visitors the point.
Now Potts, who has enjoyed successful loan spells at Wycombe Wanderers and Portsmouth over the past two seasons, wants to contribute more and more as the Irons aim to climb the table under Nuno’s stewardship.
"I felt confident,” Potts told West Ham TV. “The new manager’s come in and didn’t have a lot of time to set out his tactics, only having two days to do so.
“I just felt I wanted to come on and play my game and do my best for the team, because we were 1-0 down. I had to try and help the team in any way I could to turn the result around.
“Thankfully we did that and that was the main thing at the end of the day. It wasn't my performance, it was the fact that we'd come away with a point, and I feel like we could have got more.
"Today was just another showcase of real confidence in each other to get the point.”
West Ham took on the challenge of Everton with a plethora of young talent on the pitch. Aside from Potts, the likes of El Hadji Malick Diouf, Mateus Fernandes, Soungoutou Magassa and Luis Guilherme all had important roles to play.
Potts feels the desire from the squad to lift the Hammers’ form, not just from that group of youngsters, but the senior players too, and is sure their fortunes will soon begin to change.
He continued: “I think there's a lot of hunger, [in the youngsters and the] senior players, there's a lot of hunger. Everyone wants to play and everyone is helping each other out, especially in training. You see it as healthy competition, everyone's pushing each other on to fight to start or to come on.
“I think that's good to have, because obviously that keeps performances high, everyone's got to be on their game. Today I just wanted to show what I could do to the new manager and help the team in any way that I could. So I'm happy.
“Hearing the fans chanting my name is something I've dreamt of since I first joined when I was five. I'm very happy and I'm hoping to hear that quite a few more times.”
Nuno’s backroom staff for Monday’s game was made up of several familiar faces to Potts from the Academy, with the likes of Mark Robson, Gerard Prenderville, Billy Lepine and Potts’ own father, Steve, stepping into the breach to assist the Portuguese during his first days in charge.
Potts was delighted to see them in the dugout and had thanks for the part they’ve played in his journey to Premier League minutes.
“Robbo, Gerard, they're great coaches. I can't say much about my dad, obviously,” he smiled.
“They’re real good people as well. Obviously all the work they've put in behind the scenes, it's good to see them now.
“They've really helped me and really helped a lot of the players coming through the Academy. I can only say thank you to them for what they do for us every day.”
