Gillingham defender Remeao Hutton – labelled as the best crosser in League 2 - on how he made the best out of being left out at Stevenage and suffering a broken foot at Birmingham City

Gillingham defender Remeao Hutton has made the most of the setbacks in his career.

Hutton is League 2’s top crosser of the ball this season and provided more assists than any other defender last season - but he’s worked hard on making an impact.

As a teenager at Birmingham, he spent seven months out injured with a broken foot and spent his time trawling the Wyscout video library of football matches to learn what he could. He perfected his crossing skills while on loan at Stevenage after being left out of the team.

“I like to make a point when I am not in the team,” he said, when asked about his crossing ability.

“I had to work on it. When I was at Stevenage I was in and out of the team. I was outside practising doing my extras and where the pitch was the manager (Alex Revell) had to drive past. I used to stay outside until he went home so he would see me every day.

“I was crossing for manikins. There were coaches who would help me for a bit, but they would go in when it got dark, and I would stay out with the yellow balls!

“When I had an injury at Birmingham, I broke my foot and I was out for seven months and that is when I said to myself, ‘how can I improve?’ I was watching games on Wyscout and I was just doing the most gym I could do, so that I was better when I got back.

“Even if you are left out, there are things you can do to make sure that when you are in the team you can do that in the team, that was my thing, I was just crossing, crossing and crossing and then last season I got a lot of assists, that is what I am known for.”

Hutton started out as a youth player at Walsall but played non-league football after that before being picked up by Birmingham.

“You do have to work hard no matter how many setbacks you