Town boss Kieran McKenna believes Gillingham are a good fit for centre-half Elkan Baggott’s development, the 19-year-old having joined the League Two club at the end of last week.

Indonesia international Baggott made his first appearance in a Gills shirt during Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at Dover, playing the first half.

McKenna revealed in April that sending Baggott out on loan for 2022/23 was being discussed and says the Kent side made their interest known early in the close season.

Baggott coincidentally made his senior debut against the Gills in the EFL Trophy tie at Portman Road in October 2020 before playing his first two League One games towards the end of last season.

“It was something that we spoke about from the back end of last year,” McKenna said. “I feel for centre-halves especially games are so important. You can’t replicate that in training sessions.

“He hit a really good level with us at the back end of the season and we feel like it’s really important for him that he gets that momentum now with games and accumulates league appearances and accumulates experiences playing in men’s football.

“We had some options over the summer, Gillingham and Neil Harris got in touch very early and were very keen and obviously they’re a good club who have spent lots of time in the league above lately and Elkan felt like it was a good fit for his development and we felt the same.

“Hopefully he’ll have a successful season, which doesn’t mean playing in every game and playing well every game, but it means he’s going to go there and play lots of games and learn a lot from it.”

In June, Baggott signed a new three-year deal at Town with the club having an option for a further year.

Photo: Matchday Images

KiwiBlue2 added 01:48 - Jul 14 A good move, especially with Steve Evans now out of the way. I think that he should do well and look forward to hearing about his progress, which is not to say that he could not cope yet with things here, just that he will hopefully get more games at Gillingham. A very promising lad.
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Linkboy13 added 17:26 - Jul 15 Yes a very good prospect needs to toughen up a bit looked a bit shaky when things got physical in the penalty area against Charlton. Ndaba is a year ahead of him in his development and a year out on loan is the correct thing to do let's hope he gets plenty of game time.
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