West Ham United’s latest signing Sead Haksabanovic made his debut in the Club’s 3-2 Checkatrade Trophy win over Swindon Town on Tuesday and was delighted to pull on a Hammers shirt for the first time.
The youngster, who joined from Swedish outfit Halmstads BK last week, lined-up at the County Ground as part of an exciting four-man attack alongside Martin Samuelsen, Nathan Holland and Toni Martinez.
And the winger impressed, almost scoring his first goal in Claret and Blue eleven minutes into his debut, cutting onto his left foot and smashing against the crossbar from the edge of the box.
The visitors went in front twice on the night before being pegged back – Samuelsen and skipper Moses Makasi found the back of the net before their strikes were cancelled out.
But the Robins had no answer to Dan Kemp’s winner four minutes from time which sealed the Club’s first ever three points in the competition.
Academy Director Terry Westley had nothing but praise for 18-year-old Haksabanovic after the game, and the midfielder himself was delighted to get his Hammers career off to a winning start.
It was a tough match but we attacked well and I think we deserved to win the match. It felt good to be on the pitch in a West Ham shirt for the first time
Sead Haksabanovic
He said: “It felt good to be on the pitch in a West Ham shirt for the first time. The players were taking care of me well, and of course it felt good to win the first game.
“It was good to play against a senior team for my first game as well, because I have been playing against senior teams in Sweden. It’s a good experience to get in your first game.
“It was a tough match but we attacked well and I think we deserved to win the match.
“We took the lead three times and it was so important to keep attacking after the other team equalised. We were talking about winning the game before and we really felt that we could do it.”
After the encouraging display, the Montenegro international confirmed his sights have already been set on a spot in Slaven Bilic’s first team setup.
“I’m just focused on playing well for whatever team I am asked at the moment but yes, a first team spot is of course what I am hoping to achieve and hopefully that will come soon,” he continued.
“[On Tuesday night], it felt good playing alongside Martin, Toni and Nathan going forward. They are all good players and we had a very strong team out there. They know how to play football, so it felt good to be alongside them.
“The shot I had [early on] was very close! I would have loved to score so early on, but I will score in the next match!”