Gillingham’s injury-hit striker Josh Andrews scores his first of the season in the 1-1 draw at Stevenage in the Bristol Street Motors Trophy

Gillingham striker Josh Andrews took another step closer to full fitness with a goalscoring midweek outing - but the manager’s remaining cautious.

Andrews has had an injury-hit time at the Gills ever since he was signed at the end of the January transfer window earlier this year. It was only his fifth start for the club on Tuesday night in the EFL Trophy match at Stevenage.

Manager Mark Bonner played striker for the first 45 minutes before taking him off in a pre-planned move. It was a half which had seen him hassle the home defence and score with a well-hit shot from the edge of the box.

His only other goal for the Gills came in a 3-0 win over Barrow towards the end of last season, in what was his first start for the club.

Bonner said: “I’m really pleased for him but not really putting too much pressure on the next part, we’ll just see how he copes, we can't assume ‘oh that's him now, he's back’ because he isn't.

“It was a good night to just get 45 minutes. I think he could probably have gone back out for a little bit longer but we're not into taking that risk at all.

“He played well, he's worked really hard in the last few weeks in the moments that he's trained and his goal was brilliant. It was a heck of a finish, a really, really good goal.

“It's a big one for him really and obviously if we can continually build him up and have him available, he's a good option for us.”

Andrews has completed only one full game for the Gills, at the end of last season, but started the current campaign with an injury he picked up in pre-season and has been on a reduced training programme to build up his stamina.

“He's absolutely buzzing…” The EFL Trophy gets some stick but last night’s game was a special one for Gillingham’s