Former Tottenham academy player and Dulwich Hamlet forward Jayden Clarke scored twice for Gillingham against Tranmere Rovers and recently made his 50th appearance for the club

Jayden Clarke joined the Gills as a “project” and the winger admits he’s still got plenty to learn.

It’s been an eventful start to the season for the former Dulwich Hamlet forward, enjoying a good pre-season, criticised for a miss at Fleetwood, but bouncing back with a brace of goals on Saturday.

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Clarke, who was an academy player at Tottenham, joined the Gills in January 2023, a player that recruitment boss Andy Hessenthaler felt was worthy of a chance in the Football League after impressing in the non-league ranks.

It was former boss Neil Harris who described Clarke as a project, with “real potential for the future.”

On Saturday the 23-year-old bagged his first goals in the Football League - just a week after making his 50th appearance for the club.

“I was happy with the two goals,” he said, having come off the bench to give Gillingham the legs they needed to offer a counter-attack option with 10 men.

“When any team goes down to 10 men, I think the game plan kind of changes into a counter-attacking game, and that's what the manager said to me and Jacob Wakeling when coming on.

“(The manager said) we needed to obviously help out defensively, but to use our legs to get forward when we did get the ball and I think the two goals came off the counter-attack. I think we did what he asked.

“It was a good day and it was great play from Marcus (Wyllie). I’m thankful to him for assisting both of them.”

On making it to 50 appearances he said: “Obviously, coming from non-league where I was, I think it's a good achievement and hopefully I can build on it and get as many more as I can.

“When I first came in, I think the first five months or so, I was just around the team,