Garry Richards, Simon King and Mark Bentley all got valuable match practice on Wednesday afternoon when Gillingham took on Glenn Hoddle’s football academy.

The match has been arranged following the postponement of Gillingham’s reserve match against Crawley Town on Tuesday.

Hoddle, whose academy is normally based in southern Spain, has assembled a group of young players who he hopes to guide back into professional football after previously being released.

Richards, King and Bentley all played 90 minutes while fellow senior players Lance Cronin, Dean Rance and Luke Rooney were also selected.

The Gills won the game 2-1 with goals from Rooney and trial player Liam Envur-Marum.

“It was a good work out,” said Hessenthaler. “Glenn has a good little set-up there. He had quite a few boys on trial himself and are going back out to Spain in the next couple of days.

“It was a good little test and we played some senior ones in there. The pitch was quite heavy and it was a good test for us in respect of the conditions as well and everyone has come through.”

Striker Envur-Marum is a former Crawley striker and will be training with the Gills until the end of the week.