Gillingham have been linked with a move for Reading defender Michael Hector after manager Martin Allen watched him last week.

The nineteen year old central defender has been earning rave reviews at the Premier League club and Allen watched him last Tuesday night as the Reading Development side beat Didcot Town 3-2.

Allen was amongst a number of managers watching on, looking at some of Reading’s young stars with Crawley’s Director of Football, Steve Coppell and AFC Wimbledon manager Terry Brown also at the game.

They were there to see some of Reading’s bright prospects with Reading’s Development boss Chris Cummins keen to allow some of his youngsters out on loan to gain Football League experience.

Hector joined Barnet on loan last November and played under Allen for the last three games of the season at Underhill, but it is believed he would only be allowed to leave Reading on loan.

The defender, who turns twenty on Thursday, started his career at Millwall and had loan spells with Oxford City, Dundalk and Horsham before joining Barnet where he made 31 appearances, scoring twice in the process.

Meanwhile, it may well not be the only bit of business between Gillingham and Reading in the coming weeks, with Allen and Reading manager Brian McDermott believed to have discussed other movements.