WILL LANKSHEAR'S face lit up and it had nothing to do with the fact he'd just marked his Middlesbrough Championship debut with a brilliant double against Lincoln City.
The striker was speaking to the media post-match and was made aware of the fact he wasn't the only Lankshear celebrating, for his brother, Alex, had scored in a 2-0 win over Woking on his Gateshead debut, just a matter of days after signing for the National League club.
"I'm absolutely delighted for him, I'm buzzing," beamed Boro's Lankshear.
Alex, a defender, was previously with Blackpool but only made a couple of substitute appearances and had several spells out on loan in non-league. He spent last season with Boston before linking up with Lee Cattermole at Gateshead last week, to the delight of his younger brother who has settled quickly at Boro and told him he'd love the North East.
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The pair are living together and their proud parents took in a game each on Saturday.
"My mum is with my brother and my dad is here," said Boro frontman Lankshear.
"We're a football family, we dedicate our lives to it and he [Alex] loves it as much as me. I'm buzzing for him.
"He's worked extremely hard. It's not been easy for him but he's got the mentality and we as a family absolutely believe in him.
"We think the world of him as a footballer, he's making his own journey and I'm absolutely delighted for him.
"I know Lee Cattermole is the manager at Gateshead, I think he's a Middlesbrough fan and worked with the 21s here, so he's in safe hands. I'm delighted for him.
"It was a big decision for him but with me being up here I felt like I could give him a home and help him. I'll hopefully see him really progress."
Lankshear Jnr couldn't have asked for a better start at Middlesbrough. He marked his competitive debut with the winner against Wrexham in the Carabao Cup first round and then followed that with a second half brace on Saturday as Boro battled back from behind to beat Lincoln 2-1.
Boro forked out £8m for Lankshear in a deal that could rise to £20m and with that sort of price-tag comes expectation, and while the striker is supremely confident, he admits there's both delight and relief at making such a dream start.
"I can't lie, it absolutely is a massive relief," he said.
"Coming in for a fee, there's always going to be expectation.
"But I work hard every single day, listen to the manager and see where it takes you."
Lankshear's first goal on Saturday was an instinctive finish as he turned in Leo Castledine's low drive, and his movement led to the second after brilliant work from Riley McGree. He was nearly celebrating a hat-trick, with one second half shot deflected onto the crossbar.
He said: "The first one was instinctive and my reaction time was really good, I'm really pleased with that one.
"The second one, I thought my movement was really good. I've been working on that all week. We've been doing a lot of in and around the box movement and finishing.
"It's really nice when you've been training on something all week and it comes off. I'm really pleased about that.
"I've been dying for a hat-trick. I came quite close at Sheffield Wednesday with Oxford last season.
"I'm dying for that hat-trick ball but I'll take the two and hopefully it will come. I had about seven chances today so I probably should have had a hat-trick!"
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