Top League sign goalkeeper  from Premier League Fulham amid deadline date

Gillingham boss Mark Bonner has signed a goalkeeper on transfer deadline day.

The window for new signings closes this evening until the turn of the year, with Gills bringing in goalkeeper Luca Ashby-Hammond on loan from Premier League Fulham.

The 23-year-old, who will wear shirt number 13, is available to feature against Chesterfield in Saturday’s lunchtime kick-off at Priestfield.

Ashby-Hammond spent the first half of last season on loan at Crawley Town, before joining Notts County for the second part of the campaign. He has also represented England from under-15 to under-20 level.

 

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Gillingham goalkeeper Jake Turner picked up an ankle injury in training which led to the loan signing of Fulham’s Luca Ashby-Hammond….

Gillingham goalkeeper Jake Turner could be missing for several months because of injury.

Turner rolled his ankle in training last week and the diagnosis wasn’t good – meaning the Gills had to act quickly and bring in a back-up on transfer deadline day. Fulham loanee Luca Ashby-Hammond was on the bench against Chesterfield on Saturday.

“A brilliant win for us”

First-choice keeper Turner is the latest injury setback for the Gills and manager Mark Bonner said: “We’re having some unfortunate moments.

“He moved across his goal in training and rolled his ankle. It’s a really bad one, so we don’t expect him for a few months, definitely the next six to 10 weeks, or something like that.

“[It was] really sensible to just add and make sure we’ve got a bit of competition for Glenn. Good cover, good numbers for training and so on. That will help us give Jake time to get himself back whenever.

“It’s a loss for us, because he’s done great.”

It meant a return in goal for Glenn Morris, who is Gillingham’s oldest player, on Saturday.

“He is class,” said Bonner, talking about his senior keeper, who kept a clean sheet in a 1-0 win over Chesterfield.

“He’s the oldest player to play a league game [for the club], oldest player to play in the Carabao Cup the other week. He’s smashing records all the time, not the ones he wants to, but he kept a clean sheet which is good for him and good for us.”

Ashby-Hammond has experience of playing League 2 football after loan spells at Crawley and Notts County last season. The year before that he played a full season at National League side Aldershot.

“Luca is a player with real high pedigree,” Bonner said.

“What do we like about him? We like the fact that he’s played in this league and he’s got that development time behind him.

“We know that as and when we need him, he’ll be ready, which is good.”

The Gills had Josh Andrews back from injury on Saturday and Bradley Dack available, as an unused sub. But they lost others.

Winger Aaron Rowe went off with a hamstring injury and is to be assessed while Max Ehmer was sent off following two bookings and will miss next week’s league game against Doncaster Rovers.