Kennington boss Dan Scorer has tipped teenage goalkeeper Sam Grant for a bright future.

The 16-year-old made just his second appearance for Ton in their 2-2 draw with Sutton Athletic on Saturday, as a replacement for the injured Joe Mant.

He’d made his debut in difficult circumstances in a 5-0 defeat at Bearsted earlier this season after Mant broke down in the warm-up.

Boosted by first-team experience on dual-registation at New Romney, he was ready to return to Kennington’s starting XI.

He impressed as Ton completed an unbeaten November in the Southern Counties East Premier Division.

“It just goes to show the difference in allowing him to go out and get minutes,” said Scorer.

“He’s been with the squad, he’s been training every week and about a month ago we said we want to try and get you out and get you some minutes.

“That’s been an absolute blessing because he’s got three or four games under his belt at New Romney, they’ve been singing his praises, he’s been doing really well down there and then his opportunity came up to play and he was superb.

“He made two or three fantastic saves and was nice and assertive, and for a 16-year-old he’s brave and courageous and he’s a fantastic talker and leader from the back.

“He’s got a very bright future in non-league football and he’s got a fantastic mentor in Joe Mant and even better in Mark Lane, our goalkeeper coach who’s been absolutely brilliant with Joe and Sam since joining in the early part of the season.

“Mark’s been a breath of fresh air, all the players love him and his experience at this level and above goes a long way for the boys and myself and the rest of the management team.”

Tom Scorer and Kimsley Gatakata scored as Kennington came from a goal down to lead 2-1 but Sutton equalised with 14 minutes remaining.

It was a useful point, however, edging them up to 15th place going into a blank weekend.

“We probably had our fair share of chances to win the game but I think the most important thing was we put in another good performance that rounds off what was a really good month,” said boss Scorer.

“That goes to show we’re making progress and I’ve said to the boys now, we’ve built a fantastic foundation for what we want to try and do and hopefully we can take that confidence into December.

“We’ve only got three games but they’re three big games and we want to make sure we go into each and every one of them feeling confident that if we continue to do what we’ve been doing well then we’ll continue to come away with results.”

Kennington, who had a couple of friendlies lined up, return to league action at home to Stansfeld on December 14.