The emergence of Karn Miller-Neave suggests that Ebbsfleet United's youth set-up is already working.

Fleet launched their academy in the summer and 16-year-old Miller-Neave, one of the club's hottest young prospects, made headlines by scoring a brilliant goal in the FA Cup on Saturday.

Miller-Neave became the fourth-youngest scorer in the competition's 143-year history when he swept home a free-kick against Hythe on his first-team debut.

He's a small player with a potentially big future, according to Ebbsfleet manager Steve Brown.

Brown said: "He’s played in the youth system three times now and they’ve had three wins. I watched them last Thursday in an FA Youth Cup game and he scored one from a similar set-piece and he set up two with two set-piece deliveries.

"The drawback to Karn is that he’s still growing. Physically, at 16 years of age, is he going to hold his own in the first team?

"What Saturday gave me was a brilliant platform to give him an opportunity to show us if he can cope. I just hope that by the time he’s 17 or 18 he gets physically stronger.

"If we can give him little bits of experience like Saturday, that’ll do him the power of good. Nothing fazed him on Saturday. I thought I’d give him half-an-hour to see if he coped – and he coped very well.

"The set-piece shows that he’s got no fear. I asked Macca (Daryl McMahon) to put him on that set-piece but a kid’s still got to have the confidence, the belief and the ability to do what he did. It’s probably the best free-kick I’ve seen since I’ve been here."

Miller-Neave isn't the only young player to have caught Brown's eye. Shilow Tracey was also on the bench against Hythe while Casey Johnson and Joe Denny have featured in first-team matchday squads already this season.

Brown said: "I’ve got three or four (real prospects) at the moment.

"Several of them have trained with us and that’s how you get to understand them. You put them in your training sessions, can they cope, do they sink or swim? Three or four have come over and they’ve been brilliant.

"It’s a great place to be. If we develop them in the right way – I can’t afford to look too long-term but the club can – in 18 months or two years, you’re going to have three or four players that you won’t have to go out and find, which is the whole point of a youth system."