Hylton: It was a dream to play against Manchester United

Aldershot Town striker Danny Hylton says it was “an amazing feeling” to play against Manchester United on Tuesday despite his side suffering a comprehensive defeat.

The 22-year-old faced some of United’s biggest names, including Dimitar Berbatov, Michael Owen, and Nemanja Vidic, as the League Two side were ruthlessly beaten 3-0 by Sir Alex Ferguson’s side in the Carling Cup fourth round.

Despite the disappointing result, Hylton was proud of his team’s efforts and praised their performance against the reigning Premier League champions.

“When you’re younger and want to be a footballer, you dream of playing against teams like that. To get a chance to play against one of the best teams in the world, it was unbelievable,” he said.

“They put a great team out on the night, really experienced Premier League players and it was honestly an honour to play on the same pitch as some of them.”

And when asked about the racism debate currently dominating football news, Hylton insisted it should not be tolerated and those caught being racist on the pitch should be suitably punished.

“It doesn’t matter what colour you are, where you’re from, if you’re good enough to play football it shouldn’t matter and someone shouldn’t use that against you,” the striker said.

“If you get caught being a racist, the real punishment is walking into the changing room and facing the white players or black players, or whoever you have been racist to.”