There has been very little for Manchester United supporters to smile about this season.

They are at war with the club’s owners, the team sit outside the relegation zone only on goal difference and the poster boy for their famed academy, JJ Gabriel, wants out and could be on his way to Real Madrid.

So the sight of another homegrown talent coming off the bench to help inspire a dramatic Champions League comeback against Roma at Old Trafford has resonated even more with fans in desperate need of a feel-good factor.

Those 15 minutes of being teased and tormented by Shea Lacey must have felt a lifetime for poor Wesley, the Roma left wing-back, who was lucky not to concede a penalty when he hacked down the 19-year-old before the bewitching teenager teed up Matheus Cunha for the dramatic winner with a perfect touch then pass.

It is not common for a lad from Liverpool to become a hit with United fans, but Lacey is one of the club’s brightest young hopes and that stellar turn against Roma has only intensified debate around why he has not had more playing time when so many senior players are struggling.

The idea of a Scouser and former season-ticket holder at Anfield shunning his home-city club and United’s biggest rivals Liverpool – one his entire family support – to make his name across the East Lancs Road is a story that would play well with the Old Trafford faithful at any time.

But coming in a period when Gabriel’s likely exit is a damaging look for the club, it carries added weight, all the more so given how much Lacey loves the place and how, when he kisses the badge, it is clear he is not simply playing to the cameras.

The last Liverpool-born player to become a United hero, Wayne Rooney, was stood just across from head coach Michael Carrick, to watch Lacey light up Old Trafford on Tuesday, while working as a pundit for TNT Sports.

The club’s former captain struck a chord recently when he said: “He’s showing the fans ‘Do you know what, I care for this club even if he [Gabriel] doesn’t. I’m going to show the fans it’s not all young players who feel that way’.”

You only had to see the reaction on the pitch from Lacey’s team-mates at the end to appreciate how the teenager – a bubbly, popular presence with a good sense of humour – is regarded among the first-team set-up, although in some ways it was the reaction on social media that was more instructive.

“Until the very end. Thank you Old Trafford,” Lacey had posted on Instagram, to which Cunha replied: “It shows how much I believe in you.”

Bruno Fernandes, the United captain, followed up with a simple but affectionate and telling: “My kid”, and there were similar emotions expressed by Harry Maguire, Diogo Dalot, Patrick Dorgu and Andrey Santos.

Lacey comes from a family of footballing stock and had his first session at United’s Carrington training base shortly before his fifth birthday. A few years later, he signed for the club.

The coaches who oversaw his progress in those formative years could have been forgiven a wry smile at the sight of the teenager nimbly evading Wesley who lunged at him with a challenge former United manager Ron Atkinson might have termed a “reducer”. Or Wesley being bamboozled by a deft stepover as Lacey squeezed past him in the tightest of spaces before drawing a reckless foul that had all of Old Trafford screaming “penalty”.

Small, agile and technically gifted with a low centre of gravity, a love for dribbling and a silky left foot, he had long displayed an ability to sneak out of tight spaces. After the Roma match, Carrick said that Lacey had “got that little glint in his eye and plays with a bit of mischief if you like”, and few would disagree.

In many respects, United owe a debt of gratitude to Liverpool for Lacey ending up with them.

Lacey’s eldest brother, Paddy, who would go on to play for the likes of Sheffield Wednesday and Bradford City, had spent a month on trial with United about the age of 12 at a time when Liverpool were also vying for his services.

He was in the same peer group as Ravel Morrison and Jesse Lingard and his father – also Paddy – felt United would be the best place for him, despite their Liverpool roots.

Paddy Sr, who worked as a floor and carpet fitter, had played in the youth set-up with Liverpool back in his teenage years but was now firmly of the view that the coaching on offer was superior at United.

“Their coaching was a lot more basic, you didn’t get room to develop [in the same way] as a player,” Paddy Jr told the Manchester Evening News a couple of years ago. “So when my two little brothers were good enough, my dad never allowed them to make the decision. They got taken straight down the M62 to Manchester United.”

Luis Lacey, the middle brother who would come through the academies at Barnsley and Tranmere Rovers, plays for Macclesfield FC, the National League North club who happen to be managed by Rooney’s brother, John.

Luis, Shea and Paddy had season tickets together at Anfield. But Luis, who is two years older than Shea, would complain about his younger brother barely watching the game and struggling to feign interest whenever they went to watch Liverpool.

Things eventually came to a head and it was the opportunity for Shea to lay down his feelings. “I can’t go from hating Liverpool in the morning when I’m playing against them to supporting them,” he told his family.

“He was just being true to himself,” Paddy Jr later recalled. “It was quite a mature conversation and I just said ‘Go ahead – you’ve saved me £1,000 a year!’”

Rooney was a good boxer growing up and so was Lacey. Despite only being 5ft 6in tall, there is a feistiness beneath the flair and all that time in the ring must have helped. It also helps to explain why Lacey has always been something of a gym bunny.

All the Lacey brothers boxed, but Paddy, who would go on to become a professional fighter after his football career, says Shea was the best of the three of them. It was not uncommon for Shea and Luis to settle a football dispute in the garden by getting out the boxing gloves and going at each other.

The younger Lacey trained out of the Salisbury amateur club in Liverpool – better known as “The Solly” – and in 2019 was beaten in the national semi-finals of the 36kg weight class for his age group. It had not helped that he was still feeling the after-effects of an unpleasant trip to the dentist the previous day to have a tooth removed.

Lacey still loves boxing and will occasionally rock up at The Solly to watch club shows, but football was always his first passion. Luis and Shea were Cristiano Ronaldo obsessives but, both being left-footed, they were encouraged to watch Lionel Messi at every opportunity by their older brother and soon they were converts.

It has been far from plain sailing for Lacey, though. On and off the pitch, there have been challenges of very different kinds to contend with. A number of injury battles – including a torn thigh muscle that ruled him out for seven months – took their toll and the 90 minutes he played against Lincoln City in an EFL Trophy match in September 2025 was his first full game for two years.

Rooney, who is represented by the same agency as Lacey, was on the phone during that period and has been a valuable source of advice. The same applies to Maguire, another client of Triple S Sports Management.

There are other issues that have been nothing to do with Lacey but which affected the family. In 2017, Lacey’s oldest brother Paddy was given a 14-month drugs ban by the Football Association and had his contract terminated by Accrington Stanley. Later that same year, he was jailed for drug offences after being found in possession of cocaine and MDMA and counterfeit bank notes at the Glastonbury music festival.

Paddy Jr has talked about Shea visiting him in prison and spoken openly about his mistakes and how it was not an example to follow. Paddy rebuilt his life through boxing and started his own carpet-fitting business, but he was one of four men charged in connection with a shooting in Liverpool in November last year. In September, he was found not guilty of attempted murder after all charges against him were dropped.

On Sunday, Aston Villa visit Old Trafford. United will go in search of their first Premier League win since August 30 and plenty of the club’s fans will hope to see Lacey start. Amad Diallo was one of those to warmly embrace Lacey at the end of the Roma game but, without a goal for United for almost a year and little in the way of end product, the Ivorian is the player whose place appears most under threat.

Lacey still has much to prove and the defensive side of his game needs work. United have also been busy tailoring his diet and putting together the right nutritional programmes. Erik ten Hag and Ruben Amorim both kept an eye on Lacey’s progress and had one-to-one meetings with him, while Carrick is also a big fan.

With his own son Jacey in the youth set-up, Carrick had been a regular watcher of academy games long before he got the manager’s job so knows Lacey well and will have his reasons for limiting the teenager to just 125 minutes so far this term. That could soon change, though.