Fry impresses for Gills

It appears Matthew Fry made a big impression on the first senior start of his career on Saturday.

The former West Ham United Under-18 captain was thrown straight into the Gillingham team to face MK Dons in League One just two days after arriving on a one-month loan deal. He did not look out of place at Stadium:MK, though, making several decisive tackles to help his side go in 0-0 at the break. The home side turned the screw in the second half and two goals, which Fry could do nothing about, helped them to a 2-0 win.

After the game, Gillingham manager Mark Stimson was delighted with the 19-year-old's debut.

"Fry played the full 90 minutes and I thought he was absolutely outstanding," Stimson said. "It was his league debut, and for his age against two very good strikers he's put a real shift in and that was a massive plus.

"He's not the biggest but he competed. He's got a nice left foot and showed good composure; he's not frightened to put his foot in and made a great recovery tackle on Jermaine Easter. He's young and he's got the legs and enthusiasm to come to places like this and try to enjoy it."

Elsewhere, Freddie Sears played 74 minutes from the bench as Crystal Palace battled to a 1-1 draw at Cardiff City in the Championship, while Jordan Spence was an unused substitute for Scunthorpe United in their 3-1 home win against Sheffield United in the same division.

Into League Two and Anthony Edgar also remained on the bench for Bournemouth as they won 1-0 away at Accrington Stanley, while Friday's game saw Holmar Eyjolfsson play 56 minutes for Cheltenham Town as they went down 2-1 at home to Macclesfield Town.