Crystal Palace fans have taken to Twitter to react after it was revealed that academy prospect Brandon Pierrick had signed his first professional contract with the club, on the day of his 18th birthday.

Pierrick has been with the Eagles since U9-level, rising through the ranks to become the only player so far this season to start all 15 U23 games, scoring four goals - including an impressive hat-trick against south London rivals Millwall U23.

The teenager also scored a double in Palace's pre-season friendly against AFC Wimbledon, in an XI featuring first-team players such as Mamadou Sakho, Jairo Riedewald and Connor Wickham.

Apart from the progression of Aaron Wan-Bissaka, it has been years since the south London side saw a gem rise out of their academy - Jonny Williams and Wilfried Zaha were the last real prospects to make an impact on the first-team.

The Selhurst Park faithful can only hope that Pierrick becomes the next big thing in SE25, and judging by his performances so far this season, there is no reason why he cannot take that next step.

This supporter said that they had "been waiting for this" news, and called for Pierrick to be involved off the bench against arch-rivals Brighton on Monday evening.

Additionally, this fan went even further than the Brighton game on Monday and instead asked for the U23 star to be on the bench for a few games.

Elsewhere, 'Oscar Nicholson' made the extremely bold claim that Pierrick is the "new Wilf" and that the reincarnate of the Ivorian is "inbound" after the signing of his first professional contract.

Meanwhile, 'Royce Coolidge" said that they hope the Eagles actually give the 18-year-old some game time.

Lastly, these two supporters demanded that Pierrick is involved in the FA Cup third round tie against Derby at Selhurst Park on the 5th January - the latter fan said that he needs to feature against the Rams at the "very least".

In other news, this Crystal Palace player was lucky not to have seen red against Watford last time out for one reason...