Colchester United 2 Gillingham 1: Vertu Trophy group match report

Gillingham conceded two late goals and had a player sent off as they were beaten by Colchester United in the Vertu Trophy.

Sam Vokes opened the scoring for Gillingham but Colchester equaliser late on through Micah Mbick. The Gills finished with 10 men after Lenni Cirino was dismissed for a second bookable offence and the home side completed a comeback 2-1 win as Arthur Read scored a stoppage-time penalty.

Caretaker manager Richard Dobson made nine changes to the team which started in League 2 at MK Dons on the Saturday.

Strikers Vokes was making his first Gills start in competitive action while Watford loan defender Travis Akomeah was also included from the off.

Lenni Cirino looked decent off the bench at the weekend and got another chance to impress, as did young centre-half Logan Dobbs - scorer of the opener in a 4-1 win over Fulham under-21s in the earlier Trophy match.

Attacking midfielder Cruz Beszant was a late change to the team as he replaced Seb Palmer-Houlden in the XI.

Weekend goalscorer Palmer-Houlden has been named to start but didn’t play any part in the game.

Max Clark captained the Gills and played in a defensive midfield role alongside Nelson Khumbeni. Cirino and Remeao Hutton played as wing-backs.

Both teams won their opening games of the group stage and served up an entertaining first 45 minutes. It was a surprise that there was only one goal in it at the break.

Colchester went closest early on when Akomeah had to clear Samson Tovide’s effort off the line but at the other end Clark crashed a 25-yard volley off the upright.

With 15 minute played the Gills went ahead. Hutton’s cross was knocked back across goal by the lively Cirino into the path of Vokes and the former Wales international made no mistake