Tuesday 4 September 2018 was just an average day for Luke Matheson, until it wasn’t.

By day, the Rochdale starlet was readying himself to tackle his final year of his GCSEs but by night, he was preparing to make history in the EFL Trophy.

“That was my first day back in Year 11 after the summer holidays,” Matheson, who attended Trinity Church of England High School, recalls. “Up until about two o’clock in the afternoon, I was in school and it was just your normal day back in high school, meeting all your new teachers for the year, settling in and sorting textbooks out and everything else.

“I got permission to leave early so I made my way up, got the bus into town and got the tram up to Rochdale and met up with the rest of the squad. I knew I was going to be on the bench at that point, so even that in itself was a massive thing for me. I was still 15 at the time, so being on the bench was crazy to me.”

Rochdale kicked off their 2018/19 EFL Trophy campaign at home to Bury in Northern Group B but just 13 minutes in, defender Connor Randall sustained an injury and manager Keith Hill was forced to make a change. He looked to his substitutes and decided to give a teenage Matheson his chance.

At exactly 15 years and 336 days old, Matheson was christened the Club’s youngest-ever player, usurping former Dale midfielder Daniel Adshead to take that title.

“The lad who started at right-back went down really early on,” he remembers. “The gaffer sent me and another first-teamer who was established at centre-back and left-back to warm up. I thought he was just sending us out as a precaution and there was no way I’m going to be the one he calls back.

“Then he called my name over and the lad looked at me like, ‘you’re going on.’ Next thing I knew, I was on the pitch. I never expected to even be involved. I didn’t have time to process the fact I was actually coming on. It was almost five years ago that it happened, but I remember it like it was yesterday.

“Even now being older, especially as a defender, within the way football works, it’s always your strikers, winger and midfielders who are the ones who normally come on if there’s not an injury. I never even thought he’d consider putting me on. It took a weight off my chest and there was no pressure.”

Hill’s side eventually ran out 2-1 winners over Bury and not only did Matheson see the game out, but he also went one better. He was awarded the Player of the Match, making quite the impression on his debut.

He laughs: “I was just focusing on the game and then you’re hearing through the speakers that the sponsors had chosen me as the Player of the Match. That was a funny one because I couldn’t receive the bottle of champagne!  There’s a picture up at my mum and dad’s house of my dad having to go and get it for me.

“Afterwards, I couldn’t get changed with the lads either. I was stood on my own outside of the referee’s dressing room waiting for them to finish, so by the time everyone else had gone home, I wasn’t even showered and changed!”

Rochdale topped their Group before being knocked out in the Round of 16 as Matheson made further appearances in the competition against Fleetwood Town, Leicester City Under-21s and Manchester City Under-21s.

“I’ll always be forever grateful to Keith Hill for giving me that opportunity to a schoolboy,” he continues. “The EFL Trophy is a competition that is renowned for young players getting an opportunity.

“If I didn’t play in that game, there might have only been a couple more that season that I might have been trusted in to make a mark. It was because of that game that I ended up making League One appearances that season. If I didn’t come on or even if that injury didn’t happen – touch wood – things might never have turned out how they did.”

Nevertheless, it was still too soon for Matheson to put all of his eggs into one basket with regards to his footballing career, no matter how bright the future looked. And his hard work paid off, achieving one A**, four A*s and three As in his GCSEs, but that wasn’t the reason he had students asking him to sign their homework planners

“With my GCSEs, we had an agreement with my school where if my grades started to drop from what I was capable of doing, the football would be the sacrifice, not the education side,” he explains. “That was my motivation to maintain my grades to the standard I’d set out.

“When I went away with England for the 10 days, I went around to all my teachers and got all my work. We said, ‘if this, this and this isn’t done, you’re staying behind and doing that piece of History work and not going to that game on a Tuesday night.’ That made sure I could keep the balance. I was a kid who went to school and sixth form college and did his A-Levels.”

His education always took precedence, even after his career-defining moment. In September 2019, a year after making his debut in the EFL Trophy, the defender was making waves once again.

Rochdale travelled to Manchester United in Round Three of the Carabao Cup and, having already featured a handful of times that season for the Club, Matheson was named in the starting line-up at Old Trafford.

He rippled the net against the Premier League giants to equalise for Dale and take the tie to penalties. The visitors lost out on spot-kicks but, by that stage, there was no going back.

He adds: “That was the best day of my life, most certainly. It was a similar situation. Going to Old Trafford and playing in front of 60,000 people and it had all the coverage, being there was just enough for me. I was still just 16. Finding out the day before that I was going to be starting, it was crazy to go and score that goal.

“It opened my eyes to how big it was. After my debut, I might have got a couple of hundred followers but after the United game, I was sat on the coach refreshing my social media and it was 1,000 then 2,000 then 3,000 followers. I was like, ‘wow, people now really know who I am.’”

It soon became a whirlwind. The Dale Academy graduate made 36 appearances in total for the Club, going on to make his league debut and ink his first professional contract with Rochdale. He also scooped the League One Apprentice of the Season in the 2020 EFL Awards.

An international call-up wasn’t far behind. Matheson made his debut for the England Under-17s and he was later on the Under-18s’ radar, but it was his first-hand experience of playing first-team football in the EFL Trophy that set him apart from his Three Lions teammates.

He says: “Everything happened so fast. In that February, the Academy manager sat me down and said that England had called me up. You never think being a 16-year-old at that time playing for Rochdale that England are ever even going to consider someone like me.

“It was me from Rochdale, five players from City, six from United, two from Chelsea and three from Tottenham, and they’re the biggest players of my age group who were flying. It was almost like I was an outsider but at the same time, I was the only one who’d had any experience playing men’s football.

“I loved every single minute of it. It’s something that nobody can ever take away from me that I’ve sang the national anthem with an England shirt on and I’ve been selected for my country. It goes to show how people can really put themselves out there in this competition and it leads to further things if you do well. It just showcased I can’t just do it in training or for the Under-18s – I can do it on the pitch.”

His newfound stardom sent him to the top of a number of teams’ transfer lists and in the January 2020 transfer window, the highly rated youngster made the switch to top-flight side Wolverhampton Wanderers for a seven-figure fee.

Matheson re-joined Rochdale on loan for the remainder of the season after putting pen to paper with Wolves and after officially linking up with his new Club ahead of the 2020/21 season, he made his debut in the yellow and black in none other than the EFL Trophy against Oldham Athletic.

Things might not have worked out the way he would have wanted at Molineux, with his time in the West Midlands hampered by injuries, but the competition afforded him some more minutes for the Club.

“For the Under-21s teams, the EFL Trophy is their big competition” Matheson highlights. “It’s the competition where teams get to go to Wembley at the end of it and it’s the competition everyone wants to win the Under-21s. They treat it the way a team would treat the FA Cup in the later rounds.

“You go from wearing numbers one to 11 in the league to actually having a shirt and a first-team number, so I had Matheson and number 41 on my back. It just adds that extra feeling that this is a proper football game. It’s a level up to putting a Wolves badge on when it’s a proper men’s footballing environment.”

Earlier in the summer, following his release by Wolves, Matheson found himself in the market for a new Club. He completed a successful trial period with Sky Bet League One outfit Bolton Wanderers to sign for the Whites’ B Team ahead of the new campaign, returning to his native North West.

And last week, Trotters boss Ian Evatt handed the 20-year-old his bow as Bolton – the current holders of the EFL Trophy – embarked on their bid to retain the silverware. Debutant Matheson came off the bench in a 3-0 win over Salford City in Northern Group E.

The performance gave Wanderers fans a glimpse of what their new recruit is about and they certainly liked what they saw.

“I was on trial only a month ago here and now I’m already involved with the first team,” he smiles. “I’m very grateful for that opportunity. It’s a massive stadium for League One and a massive Club.

“I couldn’t begin to imagine how many players have made their debut in this competition. Bolton is another one and that’s three different teams I’ve made my debut for in the EFL Trophy. It goes to show how the opportunity really is there in this competition and what it can do from a player’s perspective.”