Marsh thrilled with Gills win

George Marsh says it’s all about building momentum for our Development Squad after Tuesday night’s excellent 4-0 win over Gillingham in the Checkatrade Trophy.

Jack Roles’ close-range goal just before half-time gave us a good base to build on and we subsequently put the League One side away with further strikes from Paris Maghoma, Jaden Brown and Dylan Duncan’s penalty for our first victory in the competition.

The result, which followed an important 3-1 win away to Blackburn Rovers in the Premier League 2 last time out, made it back-to-back victories for Wayne Burnett’s side for the first time this season and put us in with a real chance of qualifying for the knockout stages of the tournament, where invited Under-21 sides get a chance to face off against senior men’s teams from the Football League pyramid in competitive action.

“We’re happy with the win and it’s good to keep the momentum going after the last win at Blackburn,” said George, a versatile defensive player who can operate in holding midfield or, as he did against Gillingham, in a back three.

“We had a lot of the ball in the first half but we didn’t really do enough with it to start off with. It was good to get the goal just before half-time, which gave us good momentum for the second half to kick on again.

“Defensively, we’re happy with the clean sheet. Gillingham had quite a tall striker but we made sure we were organised on set-pieces and I thought we defended very well. It was important to keep a high line so if they did get a header in they were further away from our goal. I thought we dealt with their threats well. We were a bit sloppy at times but overall the boys did well to get the result.”

The outcome of the match, held at The Valley in Charlton due to ground works at Gillingham’s Priestfield Stadium, sets up a mouth-watering first-versus-second clash with League One leaders Portsmouth on 13 November, where victory would send us through as Southern Group A winners. We can also qualify if we remain second.

“We’ve got a good chance, we just need to win our next game and we’ll be guaranteed to be through,” said George. “We’re second now with four points and we’ve put ourselves in good stead.

“Portsmouth will be a tough game, they’ll have quite a bit of confidence because of the way they’ve started the season but so will we. It’ll be a tough test but hopefully we’ll get through it.”