Lowestoft Town boss backs young goalkeeper to keep pushing Andy Reynolds

Andy Reynolds was preferred during the Blues' 1-1 draw with Hampton & Richmond on Saturday and Gallagher admitted the youngster could count himself a little unfortunate to lose his place.

But Gallagher is counting on Jessup pushing Reynolds hard for a starting berth.

'The challenge for Jake is is not to consider himself as a number two goalkeeper,' said Gallagher. 'He has been magnificent for us and he can consider himself unlucky not to be in the team – it's so close between the two of them.

'Jake needs to make sure that he's ready when next called upon and make it as hard as possible for us not to leave him out. They are driving each other on which is good news for all of us.'

Lowestoft were once again caught up in traffic ahead of last Saturday's fixture but it didn't stop them from making a fast start, which saw Jack Defty give the Blues the lead.

However, Lowestoft were pegged back before the break although Gallagher is pleased with the progress his side are making.

'We started the game really strongly but we got a bit unsettled midway through the half and allowed them to get back into the game,' he added. 'In the second half I thought we dominated for spells and although we didn't create as many chances as we would have liked we were never in any real danger.

'We are improving in every game I believe and we haven't even had our full squad available to us yet.'

Lowestoft travel to Wealdstone tomorrow in the second qualifying round of the FA Cup and Gallagher hopes the club can embark on a run in the competition.

'The FA Cup is a competition that you want to stay in as long as possible,' he said. 'We've been to the first round proper in years gone by and we want to at least match that again.

'It's a really tough game – in an ideal world you don't want to be away and you don't want to be facing someone from the same division but we will deal with it.'