Witham Town manager Garry Kimble is hoping that the emergence of Lewis Down into their first-team can be an encouragement for others to progress into the senior ranks at the club.

Down has kept goal for the firsts in their last two matches after moving up from Mark Nicholls’ reserve team and Kimble has been impressed by his early performances.

Who will fill Town’s goalkeeping berth on a permanent basis has provided Kimble with a headache since the departure of Martyn Guest at the end of last season, so he is delighted to see Down make the step up successfully.

Down was in goal for Witham’s 1-0 FA Cup second qualifying round defeat at King’s Lynn Town, where he was only beaten by a first-half penalty, on Saturday and he was due to start their Ryman League division north game against Brightlingsea Regent on Tuesday.

A floodlight failure at the Village Glass Stadium meant that game was postponed, so Down’s next chance to shine for Witham could come as they face Ryman League division south side Herne Bay in the FA Trophy preliminary round at home on Saturday.

Kimble is hoping that the young keeper will be able to continue the early promise that he has shown and feels it could encourage more reserve players to push on into the first team.

“Lewis played ever so well at King’s Lynn and at Dereham in the game before that,” said Kimble.

“It has been superb to see him come in and do well, especially as he’s stepped out of the reserves into the first-team.

“He’s been promoted and hasn’t looked bad at all.

“Maybe it’s a way that we can look to do it in the future and players can see that there are opportunities in the first-team.

“They’ll think ‘if Lewis can do it, why can’t I?’ but he has done ever so well so far.”