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Ethan Galbraith can't help but smile as he reminisces about the dramatic closing stages of his team's epic comeback victory against Nottingham Forest in the EFL Cup. The game ended with Galbraith temporarily wearing a spectator's eyewear amid the post-goal scrum.

As the match entered added time, Galbraith rattled the woodwork with a powerful shot from 25 yards, and the defender immediately converted the rebound before racing off toward the home end to celebrate, with fans swarming the players.

Remarkable Recovery

The result completed an extraordinary turnaround given the Welsh side had found themselves down 2-0 during the final 45 minutes. During the delirium, there was some collateral damage. Galbraith explained, "There was a fan trying to get our attention and Josh Key and I were puzzled: 'What's he on about here?' Then we saw the glasses. It was a light-hearted moment putting them on. We are on the pitch as footballers but we're people, too, so to have a bit of craic with the fans is always good."

Manchester City Challenge

The result secured a next round game at home against the Premier League champions on Wednesday, a club Galbraith ran close at the equivalent round of the FA Cup with his former club in February. He had an excellent perspective when Orient took the lead in remarkable manner, with a teammate's first-time shot from about way out going in via the bar and the opposition keeper. It feels criminal that it was deemed an own goal.

"You would have expected they would've awarded it to him for taking the effort on from that distance," commented Galbraith, who started in midfield before shifting to right wing-back after they changed tactics. That meant getting to grips with City's winger, with whom he swapped shirts, and the winger was among the opposition who paid tribute to the way his former team approached the match.

Guardiola's System

"Fitness-wise they are very good but even the simple things and routine actions, they can just do it over and over again," the midfielder notes. "It seems as if they complete every delivery and they understand how to manage and take the sting out of a game. You can feel you're all right and then abruptly they will just thread a ball between defenders without you even spotting it. You have to be switched on at all times of the game. It requires a resilient mindset and attention just to stay in the game."

New Chapter

Swansea were keen on Galbraith in January and secured his signature to secure him in the summer in a £1.5m deal. He established himself as a fans' favourite across two seasons at Leyton Orient and has swiftly done the same in south Wales. At Orient he reunited with his former manager, who earlier gave Galbraith his debut prolonged spell in senior football on loan at his loan club from Old Trafford. Then came a temporary move at League Two Salford City, before he permanently left Old Trafford.

Learning Curve

"I was perhaps a slightly green going into professional soccer. I think a lot of players would say development squad matches is very different. Sometimes it appears play is circulated without much intensity. You see few tackles or duels. Once you start playing first-team football you have to adjust fast."

National Team Success

He has shown that development for both domestically and internationally, performing well for the Green and White Army, who are fighting to qualify for the international competition next summer via the playoffs and for whom he has been selected in the last several matches, including two matches games against the German national team. Ian Baraclough, Galbraith's former international manager, gave him the highest praise, saying he was Northern Ireland's "little Iniesta or Xavi" given how he manipulates the ball and his eye for a killer pass.

Early Days

It has been a remarkable path for the player from the Queens Park estate in the Belfast suburb, just outside the capital, who grew up watching his parent, Stuart, also a midfielder, play for Ballyclare Comrades.

Red Devils Debut

His single match for United came in Central Asia in 2019, a European competition trip to the Kazakh capital, where they competed on an plastic turf and the venue ceiling was shut owing to temperatures of freezing cold. "That proved to be a lengthy journey and it was chilly," he says, smiling. "The preceding week, the academy prospects practiced as a group, so that helped us acclimatise. Just to join the main group and earn some playing time at the end was unbelievable."

Leaving United

How hard was it to depart Manchester United, the club he signed from his boyhood team aged a teenager? "It was fairly simple, because I got to the stage where I understood I wasn't going to make it at the top level. I'm hugely grateful for the experience gained but it got to the point where I felt I had to take a different path, move to a lower level and play first-team games. Now I'm steadily progressing again."

Life in Swansea

It is the early part of the afternoon at the team's practice facility but Galbraith has a commitment at late afternoon: a driving theory test, another move in the direction of getting on the road. Until recently to Sketty, the 24-year-old was a regular in Swansea's dubbed team minibus, a team vehicle driven by club employees, the drivers, which shuttles players to and from practice and games.

"I travel with the Portuguese player, the Brazilian, an Ivorian player – the Swedish defender used to be in it but has begun using his own car. It's nice to interact with the lads but I'm hoping to be the following person to stop using the bus and behind the wheel. Franco is known for his humor; he's constantly causing mischief."

Public Engagement

During his time at Leyton Orient, Galbraith would blend in with followers on the Tube after beginning his trip at the area he lived in. "I tried|I attempted|My aim