Aveley 1 Gillingham XI 4

Three late goals for Gillingham sealed a deserved win against Ryman League side Aveley on Wednesday night.

Manager Mark Stimson took the opportunity to field a largely inexperienced team against the Essex side and three efforts in the final four minutes sealed the win.

Gillingham took a 20th minute lead when Rory Hill laid the ball off to Tyrone Berry - one of several trialists. He netted at the second attempt to beat Gills young keeper Chris Kiely who was making up the numbers for Aveley.

The home side were left with no goalkeeper cover after their regular custodian went on holiday.

The Ryman League, Division 1 North side were second best in the first half but did come close to scoring with Sean Francis’ effort crashing off the bar.

Along with Berry, Gillingham also fielded American trialist striker John Rous who was leading the front line alongside Delroy Facey.

Gillingham’s lead was cancelled out after 56 minutes, when Aveley’s Albanian winger Petric Albi levelled things up, after shrugging off a couple of tackles and finishing past Alan Julian.

Gillingham’s fitness showed in the latter stages and after having the majority of the possession, they took the lead on 86 minutes, when Cumbers latched onto Danny Walder’s through ball and chipped Kiely.

Three minutes later Rory Hill grabbed a deserved goal, after an impressive display on the left wing, with a header from Tayler Thomas’ cross.

The fourth goal came in injury time as Thomas struck from the edge of the area.

Gills manager Mark Stimson said: "We left it very late but it’s probably the best time to score.

"It was all about 90 minutes with no injuries and getting people running around. It was nice to see the ball going in the back of the net because we haven’t seen that for a while and there were some young boys getting some decent goals in the end."

Gills: Julian, Richards, Walder, Bob, Clohessy, Berry (Richard 63mins), Howard (Cumbers 63mins), Lewis, Hill, Rous (Thomas 63mins), Facey. Subs not used: Wynter, Pugh.