Highly rated youngster Jack Payne has been rewarded for his impressive first team outings this season with a three year contract extension.

The 17 year-old midfielder made his league bow for the Gills last season and has been an influential part of Mark Stimson's side so far in this campaign, making a further ten appearances to date.

He signed his first professional deal in January, shortly after his 17th birthday, and will now be under contract at Gillingham until the end of the 2012/13 season.

A delighted Mark Stimson revealed the news in his post match press conference after the 3-2 defeat of Wycombe, enthusing, "I think its fantastic news for the football club to have tied someone of his potential down for such a long period of time."

He deserves a new deal because he's in the team on merit and I thought again today he didn't play like a seventeen year old. We have to monitor him every week and see how much football he's playing. Today he didn't look fatigued and played until the last minute and if he's fit and well he's got a great chance of starting on Tuesday"

The Gills Manager also confirmed that the same deal has been offered to Payne's former youth team teammate Luke Rooney who is expected to make a decision shortly, with Stimson stating, "Luke is thinking about his deal but I'm sure that will be sorted out by Monday or Tuesday"