Gillingham will have a crack at Premier League side Arsenal after the pair were drawn in the Southern Group B for the EFL Trophy.
In a week of draws for Kent’s football clubs, the first – the EFL Trophy group stages – was partially made on Monday – before the draw for the opening round of the Carabao Cup was made on Tuesday morning.
Gillingham had been drawn in Southern Group B with Crawley Town and Ipswich Town, with their third opponent having being drawn on Tuesday from the Premier League under 23s sides.
From the potential list of opponents – Arsenal, Brighton, Chelsea, Fulham, Norwich, Southampton, WBA, or West Ham – it was the Gunners who were drawn to join Steve Evans’ side in Group B.
All fixtures are to be confirmed, and given that Zech Medley and Trey Coyle are on loan at Priestfield from the Emirates, it will be interesting to see if they will be involved against their former team-mates.
The draw for Round One of the Carabao Cup which is now scheduled to be starting game for the Gills on Saturday 5th September, and the club’s first competitive opponents since the 2-2 draw at Sunderland in March will be Southend United who will travel across the Dartford crossing to Priestfield to kick off the 2020/2021 season.
It’s be a busy day as the respective draws for early stages of the FA Cup, the FA Trophy and the FA Vase were all announced, and don’t forget that Friday – August 20th – is the day that the SKYBet League One fixtures for 2020/2021 will be announced at 9am – now we’re just waiting to be told when the fans will be allowed back into Priestfield…