22-year-old Irish striker gets Man United’s attention with EFL Trophy hat-trick

The former West Ham youth team player now has five goals in six games.

Anthony Scully is off to a flyer, and he's in no mood to slow down. After scoring twice for Lincoln City in the opening fixtures of the 2021/22 season, he blasted in a hat-trick against Manchester United's U21 side in a 3-2 victory. While many would have been tracking the game to see how top United prospects Shola Shoretire, Hannibal Mejibri and Charlie McNeill got on, it was Scully that stole the show, and left with the match-ball. The London-born striker has represented Ireland at U15, U17 and U19 level. He had a brief stint with England's Under-21 set-up, a few years back, before returning to the Republic of Ireland fold. He picked up two Ireland U21 caps in 2020, against Iceland and Luxembourg. [caption id="attachment_234835" align="aligncenter" width="1280"] Anthony Scully (19, front row) pictured with his Ireland teammates before their European U21 Championship Qualifier match against Luxembourg. (Photo by Gerry Schmidt/Sportsfile)[/caption] Scully, who was with West Ham from the age of 11 and only left the club to join Lincoln last year, showed his scoring nous with three very different types of goals. His first saw him pounce on a rebound to slot home, his second was a crisp finish after controlling a nice pass over the United defence, and his third was a crisp header. The 22-year-old scored 17 goals for 'The Imps' last season and says many came like his first against United's young side - by getting into the box and being alive to deflections, blocks or rebounds. As for the hat-trick ball, he was unsure of exactly where it was going.

"Oh, I don't know," he said, "I'll probably get the lads to sign it and then hopefully put it in my house, if my missus lets me! To be fair, she'll probably tell me there's too much football stuff in the house already. "That was one of my targets for this season. I haven't scored [a hat-trick]. I'd scored a few braces and I was happy to get that one. But I want to get one in the league as well."

Although he was born in London, both Scully's parents are from Dublin and he has 'always seen myself as Irish'. He is the son of Tony Scully, who played with the likes of Manchester City and Crystal Palace in the 1990s and had over 270 appearances for English football sides. Now past the age threshold for the Ireland U21s, Scully will be hoping his goalscoring form will catch the attention of Stephen Kenny. It certainly caught the attention of Manchester United, at the LNER Stadium.

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