Some of the things Aaron Connolly achieved on Saturday: He made his first start in the Premier League. He became the 100th Irishman to score in the Premier League. He became the first Irish teenager to score twice in a Premier League game since Robbie Keane 20 years ago. He got a call-up to Ireland senior squad for the qualifiers against Georgia and Switzerland.
When he got up on Saturday, the 19-year-old from Galway would probably have been happy with the first of those feats.
Connolly opened his Premier League account in the 32nd minute against Spurs, half an hour after Neal Maupay had given Brighton the lead.
Dan Burn put in a cross from which Connolly forced a save from Paulo Gazzaniga via an inventive flick. He was quickest to react and stuck the rebound in the Spurs net.
Connolly made it 3-0 in the 65th minute. After a long ball from Lewis Dunk found him free on the left wing, Connolly ran at Toby Alderweireld.
Having faced Connolly already and watched him go left and look to put in a cross, the Dutch centre-back did not know which way the forward was going to move.
Connolly cut inside and fired a brilliant right-footed strike beyond the reach of Gazzaniga. Mick McCarthy probably had his phone in his hand before it hit the net.
