Dover Athletic 0 Gillingham 4 - pre-season friendly at Crabble

Gillingham made a solid start to their pre-season campaign by putting four past Dover on Saturday.

Goals from Tom Nichols and Oli Hawkins put Gillingham infront at the break against their National South opponents. Conor Masterson added a third in the second half, Lewis Walker made it four.

The hosts announced pre-match that they would not be publishing an official teamsheet or naming their side for the game due to the number of trialists in their line-up.

The home side were without last season’s player-of-the-year Myles Judd after Hemel Hempstead revealed him as their new signing – weeks after he was supposed to have agreed a new deal with Dover.

The Gills named two different elevens for the friendly, one for each half, with a handful of youngsters included as substitutes for the early kick off at Crabble.

Shaun Williams captained Gills’ first half team which included new signing Jonny Williams and Neil Harris’ men went ahead early on.

Another of their newcomers, Max Clark, played a ball down the left side into the feet of Nichols, who did well to stay onside before lifting the ball over the advancing keeper for a fifth-minute lead.

Nichols and Clark were both lively down the Gills left and they combined to create another opening soon after, with energetic full-back Clark lifting a shot just over the bar.

Cheye Alexander put a free-kick wide for the Gills while goalkeeper Jake Turner made a couple of blocks in goal for the visitors. Clark and Max Ehmer both made clearances to avert any danger.

The Gills doubled their advantage in the 36th minute when Hawkins got on the end of a Nichols ball into the box, getting a touch from close-range. The man with the assist had once again broke free to get on the end of a ball