Gus Poyet has given Albion’s three young trialists his initial backing.

But the Albion boss will leave the final say on the trio to development coach Luke Williams.

Poyet watched as Ben Greenhalgh, Ben Sampayo and Andre Landell helped Albion Reserves win 3-0 at Gillingham in Combination action at the Priestfield Stadium yesterday.

He said: “It was the first time I had seen them play. Luke will have the final say although I will certainly give my opinion.

“They did well but you have to take into consideration the way we play as a team makes it quite easy for players to come in and perform with us.

“It’s not like we were throwing them in with the lions or crazy tigers!”

Torbjorn Agdestein opened the scoring and Poyet was happy to back up the words of his assistant Mauricio Taricco, who recently said the Norwegian was nearing a first team chance.

Poyet added: “Tobi scored a great goal. He has improved a lot in the last six months.

“He is definitely a better player now. He understands the game better and he is probably getting closer to the first team.

“I would like to see if we could play him in a first team game soon.”

George Barker forced an own goal and Landell came off the bench to hit the late third.

Alan Navarro played the full 90 minutes and the exit of defender Lewis Dunk at half-time was put down to the after-effects of a cold.