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Harrison Ashby - son of former Gills defender Barry - caught the eye at Priestfield on Tuesday night.
Ashby, 19, wasn’t even born when his dad helped Gillingham win promotion to the Championship under Peter Taylor in 2000.
The Scotland under-21 international certainly looks a talent, capping an impressive performance from right-back with West Ham’s first goal in a 2-0 win that saw the hosts eliminated from the Papa John’s Trophy.
“He played very well, along with a lot of performances from the West Ham boys,” said Gills assistant manager Paul Raynor.
“What I liked about them was they’ve got a bit of aggression.
“You see some of these 21s and 23s academy players, it’s all very technical, it’s all very slow but I thought they had real pace about them, they had aggression about them.
“We can overpower teams at times in League 1, we felt as though we might be able to overpower them with our physical presence and our energy but they dealt with that, they had a real physicality about them and a real composure on the ball.
“I’m sure the staff at West Ham will be absolutely delighted with their performance. Young Ashby did well but there were a number of players who caught the eye as well.”
Barry Ashby was an integral player for the Gills in central defence during the club’s glory days in the Championship.
It was a side Raynor rated from afar and he’d love to see Gillingham reach those heights again one day.
“I would imagine it was a very good team - results proved that,” he said.
“I was a lot further up north at that time so my eyes weren’t totally on Gillingham but I remember them being a very good team, Barry was obviously a good player and his boy’s taken on those attributes.
“It was a very good Gills team and hopefully one day we can emulate those type of guys.”
