Jonny Williams said he regrets not swapping shirts with Cole Palmer when he was at Manchester City as he could tell he was special.

During his time with Swindon Town, Williams was part of a memorable cup run when the club made the FA Cup Third Round for the first time since 2012 under Ben Garner and earned a glamour home tie against Manchester City.

An outbreak of Covid within the City ranks meant that Pep Guardiola and many players were unable to play the game, but that did not stop a star-studded line-up turning out at The Nigel Eady County Ground, including Rodri, Kevin De Bruyne, and Bernardo Silva.

However, the standout player on the pitch was a young Palmer, despite it not being his first game for the Premier League champions, the current England Men’s Player of the Year was a relative unknown but announced himself to the world during the Friday night TV game.

He dazzled all evening and capped it with a stunning curling effort in the 4-1 victory, as well as Silva turning home from the youngster’s cross.

Harry McKirdy scored after Williams had played him through on Zac Steffen to give the home crowd a wonderful moment despite the scoreline after Ilkay Gundogan and Gabriel Jesus had both netted as City cruised into the fourth round.

Speaking recently to Sky Bet League Two, Williams remembered the night when the League Two outfit came up against the best in the land and also how Palmer showed the player he would soon become.

He said: “Manchester City at home in the FA Cup was a very memorable game, just for the atmosphere and the team they put out, they brought their superstars.

“Cole Palmer was the only young player from Man City that was playing, and no one had heard of him, but he put one in the top corner, and he was their best player.”

Swindon kitmen Steve Hooper and Jonah Isaacs memorably obtained De Bruyne’s shirt from the game but Williams wishes he had gambled on his intuition and gone for the PFA Young Player of the Year's jersey like one of his teammates.

He added: “They had a really strong team out and someone swapped shirts with him [Palmer].

“I remember thinking, 'That would be a good player to swap [shirts] with in the future, he'll be a superstar one day' and I turned out to be right.”