Aaron Connolly has revealed he looked to his proud dad in the crowd as he celebrated his debut double.

The young striker from Galway marked his first Premier League start by scoring in each half as Albion beat Spurs 3-0.

His father made a late - and, as it turned out, inspired - decision to attend the game.

Connolly plundered goals for Mervue United on the west coast of Ireland before being picked up by the Albion academy and has not forgotten those early days.

He revealed: “It made it even more special that it was the Amex. My dad flew over to watch this morning in the hope that I’d start, and I looked up to celebrate with him when I got the second goal.

“I’m so grateful for all the hard work all my family have put in and it’s great to know I’ve made them proud.

“They’ve dropped me to training and games when I was young and sat out in the cold watching, and that was for them today as much as it was for me.”

Connolly described the game as the best moment of his young career so far and is eager to push on for more.

He added: “I can’t really describe it at the moment. I feel speechless and I don’t think it will sink in for a while.

“I know I won’t be sleeping this evening! I’ve been close to scoring in the last few matches but thankfully it’s come today, and I’ve scored twice.

"It’s the proudest moment of my career so far and now I want to push on for more.”

“It was a good all-round team performance today, everyone put in a lot of effort.

“Everyone’s been saying that the performances have been there in recent weeks and that we’ve just been missing the results, but that’s come today.

“We got the goals and the win we deserved and I’m just happy I was able to contribute.”