Some of Gillingham’s young players came to the fore on Saturday in another pleasing workout Mark Bonner’s side.

The Gills tackled Championship side Watford and youth team right-back Harry Webster picked up the man-of-the-match accolade after a fine first-half performance in the 2-0 win.

Report: Gills 2 Watford 0

Fellow youth player Harry Waldock also played the first 45 minutes for the Gills while there were appearances in the second half for Stanley Skipper and Harry Bridle. Young professional Sam Gale impressed in an unfamiliar left-back position too.

With senior players Jonny Williams, Armani Little, Ethan Coleman, George Lapslie and Ashley Nadesan among those missing injured, it’s a chance for the youngsters to shine.

“It is exactly what they have to do,” said the Gills boss.

“You never know when your opportunity will come. Harry Bridle trained with us once and poor (Mark Moss, the youth manager). They were getting ready for Chatham on Friday afternoon at 2pm and I’m telling them Harry (wasn’t going to be) playing at Chatham as he was playing half an hour for us.

“I went to Chatham and watched the young boys there, a really young team, but they had a right go and tried to stay in the game. We had moments (on Saturday) where it was similar.

“We had a lot of young players out there who have just got to dig in and show that they are taking on the work that we have done. I am really pleased for them.

“It is a good chance for them to show what they can do, good experiences for them, so that when they go back to the 18s or they go out on loan they know what they are trying to get into.

“For the rest of our boys, they have to step up and perform, but they have to lead the younger ones and help them and show their personality. It is a good challenge for everyone.

“Early pre-season is always the chance for those players. It is much harder for them to be knocking on the door when the season starts, but it is a challenge for everybody and really it’s no different for them than it is for any of the boys.

“It is all new to me and they have got a chance to make a first impression. They are coping well and training well and Harry Webster has had two really good games against good wingers.

“He has played really well and we’re happy with him.

“It is a big challenge for them to maintain that level and maintain that standard but I am pleased with how they have coped so far, in what has been a fairly difficult environment in the first two games.”

Gillingham beat Watford 2-0 as trialist Euan Williams netted in the first half following Max Clark’s quickly taken free-kick that set him up. Tim Dieng put Jack Nolan in on goal to get the second.

“It was a good game,” said Bonner.

“It probably took us 15-20 minutes to really get to grips with their shape.

“Some of our defending on and around the ball was very good, we knew the game would be a bit more of a counter-attack, out-of-possession day for us really, so we worked quite a lot on that this week. That was a good opportunity for us to test ourselves and we had some good moments.

“They had some good chances in the first half, dragged a few wide and they had a few set-plays.

“The goalkeepers for us, both goalkeepers (one in each half) haven’t really been troubled, in terms of saves, but we had to defend a lot around our box. There were a lot of penalty-box entries but we did that quite well.

“I thought we looked dangerous in counter-attacking situations and I thought we scored two good goals.

“We looked fitter and more organised than last week, which is obviously very important, and really pleased with some of the individual performances, especially when you are playing a team where I think it was their fourth game and our second.

“We have got a bit of a mix of players still. We’ve got quite a few young boys getting minutes and some (playing) out of position and some for the first time but it’s really good exposure for them, that’s what it is all about, seeing who can step up at the moment in the early part of the season.”