Notts County boss Luke Williams showered Lewis Macari with praise after the Stoke loanee marked his English league debut with a stunning strike to earn his side a 2-1 win at Gillingham.
The 21-year-old grandson of Manchester United legend Lou Macari fired home from 20 yards with 12 minutes to play after Scott Malone had cancelled out Macaulay Langstaff’s opener.
Macari has previously enjoyed loan spells at Market Drayton and Dundalk but this was his first taste of EFL action, and Magpies boss Williams was delighted with his display.
He said: “He’s done himself proud. He performed brilliantly. I have to make sure I reward people for their hard work in training. He’s really enthusiastic so I wanted to be brave and give him a chance.
“This was a display of his personality. He did the job he was asked to do efficiently, but then he expressed himself as an individual.
“He had a big decision to make when the ball was out in front of him and he took it on. He showed us a new side to his game.”
County made a strong start to their 5,000th league game and Langstaff met Tobi Adebayo-Rowling’s low cross to deservedly put the visitors in front in the 38th minute.
Malone’s solo effort restored parity for the managerless Gills but Macari’s strike ensured County celebrated a perfect response to last weekend’s 4-1 derby defeat by Mansfield.
“Maybe we haven’t fully appreciated each other enough as a group at times recently,” Williams added.
“But I saw players celebrating when team-mates stepped up and moved the defensive line today.
“I saw players celebrating somebody else heading the ball out of the box today. We need to get back to really appreciating each other for what is good, elite work.”
The out-of-form Gills have now lost three of their last six games but interim boss Keith Millen remained pleased with the performance.
“It was a game decided by small margins,” he said. “I thought the players worked their socks off against a very good team. I told them in the dressing room that I’m really proud.
“It’s raw because I think we deserved a draw, but our effort and commitmentwere excellent. You can see the disappointment in the dressing room.
“When it got back to 1-1, I thought there was only one team who would go on to win it.
“Even in the first half, when they were having a lot of the ball, we had opportunities on the break but we weren’t clinical enough.
“Their first goal came from a three on two for us but we didn’t capitalise on it. We had so many good opportunities but we didn’t punish them.”
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