Gillingham now know the make-up of League 2 next season following Sunday’s play-off final – and it’s not one for the travel-shy.
Scott Lindsey masterminded Crawley Town’s play-off success – beating Crewe in Sunday’s final – and that means another local game off the agenda for the Gills.
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Lindsey – who had previously been touted as a potential Gills manager – led relegation-fancied Crawley to promotion against the odds and managed it with an easy-on-the-eye style that Kent football fans will remember he employed during his stint as manager of Chatham Town in the Southern Counties East League.
He did it with another familiar face by his side, with Gills’ former no.2 Jamie Day assisting him on their way to promotion into League 1.
The Gills missed out on being involved in the promotion fight themselves – finishing 12th – but new boss Mark Bonner will hope to put together a team capable of challenging for honours next season.
The Gills will clock up over 9,000 miles getting to and from their matches next season in League 2 – an increase of around 500 miles from the campaign just gone.
They face not one, but two trips into Cumbria, with 680-mile round trips to Barrow and Carlisle United to look forward to.
There’s north-west journeys to Accrington, Fleetwood, Morecambe, Salford and Tranmere and another trip to the seaside town of Cleethorpes for the match at Grimsby Town, over on the other side of the country.
Chesterfield are added to the mix following their comfortable title-winning success in the National League – and they’re favourites to go up from League 2 next term – while Port Vale have dropped down into League 2 along with Cheltenham Town.
Yorkshire are well represented, spread from Harrogate Town (North Yorks) and Bradford City (West Yorks), down to Doncaster Rovers (South York). A late 10-game winning streak helped to get Rovers into the play-offs but they fell at the first hurdle, losing to Crewe in the semi-finals.
The shortest trip for the Gills is probably one many fans will be looking forward to the most, a first Football League encounter against Bromley following their play-off win in the National League.
Games at Wimbledon, Colchester United and MK Dons are the only other matches which can be deemed as close.
It all starts again on the weekend of August 10-11 and fixtures will be out next month, on Wednesday, June 26.
Prior to the season starting the Gills will have a pre-season campaign to look forward to, which will at least see the team playing close to home.
The Gills have already announced a game at Dartford’s Princes Park on Tuesday, July 23 – against a team managed by former boss Ady Pennock – while the club will send mixed XI teams to Chatham Town (Friday, July 19) and Sheppey United (Friday, July 26). Many more games are yet to be announced.
