Goalkeeper Glenn Morris has just passed 600 career appearances and turns 41 later this month but showed on Saturday he’s far from finished.

Gillingham’s evergreen goalie came back into the side to replace the injured Jake Turner at the weekend and pulled off a couple of top saves late on to preserve a 1-0 lead. Boss Mark Bonner described him as a “manager’s dream” after the game.

The Gills badly needed a win on Saturday, after back-to-back defeats, and Morris helped ensure they got maximum points. Heading into the game he was presented with a special memento in recognition of reaching another impressive milestone.

Bonner praised his goalkeeper post-match.

“Game 601 - Amazing,” beamed the Gills boss.

“He made his 600th career appearance coming off the bench midweek (at Bromley). We presented him with a shirt [on Friday] and basically told him how much we love him and how good he is.

“He's got an amazing quality to train like he's 20 every day. What a quality to have, that you are consistent and calm around the team.

“The other thing I credited him for, and said to him, was that for every one of us that wants to have strong careers and long careers in the game, he's a brilliant inspiration every day for us. Then he goes and plays like that and makes big saves, which isn't a shock to anybody.

“He's an absolute manager's dream. A dream in the dressing room. 601 not out is some achievement. Fair play to him and really, really proud of him and actually really proud to be his manager.”

Morris was picked ahead of Fulham loanee Luca Ashby-Hammond to step back into the side after Turner damaged his face in that game at Bromley.

Turner made a decent save himself to deny Bromley in last Wednesday’s game but stopped the shot with his nose. Bonner admitted the protective helmet he’d been wearing since was of no use to play in.

Gillingham’s regular no.1 keeper has an appointment tomorrow (Wednesday) to ascertain the damage done, with the assumption that his nose is broken.

“He's worn some Zorro mask in training,” said Bonner.

“It's so thick he might as well be wearing a motorcycle helmet! He couldn't even see. So no good for him in that.

“He'll have a consultation on Wednesday and we'll see what they do about that.”

Morris made his Football League debut for Leyton Orient in April 2002, then playing in Division 3. He played 150-odd games for them, over 60 for Southend, then spent time at Aldershot and two years mainly as a back-up keeper in his first spell at Gillingham.

Just under half of his senior appearance came during six years at Crawley, where he won multiple player-of-the-year awards before joining the Gills again in 2022, initially on loan. He was named League 2 player-of-the-month in September after a trio of clean sheets, helping the team topple league leaders in successive games when they beat Notts County and Barrow.