First-year apprentice Tom Murphy made a surprise debut for Gillingham against Colchester in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy on Tuesday night.

Murphy, 16, played the final 15 minutes as Stimson tried to get his side back into the tie.

Manager Mark Stimson said: “Tom Murphy has done well every time I’ve seen him in the youth team.

“He’s not a kid who worries too much about the game, he just gets on with it and he plays with passion and he has an eye for goal.

“I think if (Simeon) Jackson and (Andy) Bartram had played all night they wouldn’t have scored for whatever reason, so I thought let’s chuck the two younger ones on and see if they could come up with anything different.

“It didn’t work out but he’ll enjoy his evening and he just needs to now get his head down and keep working. If the opportunity ever came again I wouldn’t be afraid to chuck him in there.”