Gillingham 0 Charlton 1 - Pre-season friendly report from Priestfield Stadium

Injury-hit Gillingham lost at home on Saturday in their pre-season game against Charlton Athletic.

An alarming number of senior players were missing at the weekend.

From a squad of around 20 senior players, eight weren’t involved. It meant a young team going on as replacements after an hour, and that’s when the Charlton goal came. The visitors scored their winning goal through Reece Burke, heading in from a corner kick.

This game came three weeks ahead of the league season kicking off and two before the Carabao Cup game against Luton Town.

New striker Will Goodwin was added to the absent list from the midweek win at Dover, along with fellow front-man Ronan Hale. Bradley Dack and Armani Little had limped off that night and didn’t feature at Priestfield.

Also missing the Charlton game were Ethan Coleman, Cameron Antwi and Garath McCleary. New goalkeeper Ollie Wright remained sidelined, which meant extra minutes again for young understudies Taite Holtam and Lennon MacLorg.

Sam Gale was played in the right wing-back role, with Kadeem Harris operating on the other flank. Up top, James Brophy played in support of striker Seb Palmer-Houlden.

Trialist Nick Freeman was handed another 45 minutes, and the team that came on with an hour gone was made up mostly of youngsters. Nelson Khumbeni, at 23, was the oldest and most experienced of the replacements.

The average age of the side finishing the game was just 18.

Gillingham’s senior XI coped well in the opening half and made it to the break goalless.

Fans watching the live stream from home had been left frustrated with a lack of pictures early on and then experienced audio issues.

Charlton had seen more of the ball and had the better of chances, as expected, but the Gills had a