Jordan Graham has been reflecting on at just 25 being one of the older heads in the Gillingham dressing room whilst still like his younger team-mates being part of Steve Evans’ side massive learning curve that this League One season will be.

Speaking ahead of the weekend’s visit of Joey Barton’s Fleetwood Town, Graham told us, “I suppose for me on a personal note I’m loving this season because I’m still learning, I still have so much to learn in the game. I haven’t played as many games as I’d like to by this time in my career through various different reasons.

“But I’m still learning, but I also feel like I’ve already learned so much more than a lot of the younger players in the dressing room. So, I’m trying to give what I’ve learned whilst taking on things from older pros that have more knowledge in the game than me, so it really is kind of a mix of both for me!”

“This season I’m really enjoying my game as I feel that I’ve got more of a responsibility in this group because I’m not one of the younger ones as I normally have been in other dressing rooms in the past.”

“My role is pretty much like a “teaching assistant” and I’m really enjoying it. I feel like a lot of the younger ones do look up to me because I’ve played at a higher level; I’ve been in the game eight or nine years now, so a lot of the younger ones do ask me questions and I try to give them the best advice that I can give and try to help them where I can on and off the pitch, and I do think that its going to be a really successful season for us as a group!”

With the country still griped with various levels of the pandemic, we asked Graham about the life of a footballer far from home, in his case from his family and friends in the Midlands.

“I don’t really pay too much mind to it to be honest,” he said thoughtfully. “I speak to my family and friends quite a lot and they’re all the same. I’ve got a small group of friends and there’s my mum, my dad and my sister and I speak to them pretty much to be honest, and my dad told me “don’t worry about anything else except football as the moment, it’s a big season for you and Gillingham!”

He doesn’t want my mind on other things, I’m here to play and play to the best that I can and help the best that I can, and I don’t like to think about other things really. In my down time, I try not to think about football too much if I’m not watching it or playing it or training, I try to watch and do other things and relax.

“But when I’m down here off the field, I’m not too concerned with things right now, for me its constant football, football, football and trying to find ways to help people here and play the best that I can and do what I can do and that will hopefully continue this weekend against Fleetwood.”

Gillingham are currently in the midst of playing the League One fancied teams almost one after the other. With the toughest week of the season this far ahead of them, after Fleetwood, they go to Ipswich before welcoming Sunderland to Priestfield next weekend, Graham for one can’t wait.

“I think it’s good for us, I said this a few weeks ago,” he admitted. “I said that it could be good to get the so called “big” teams out of the way whilst there’s still no fans in the grounds and only six weeks into the season as they’re still getting to know their squads, lets get the big teams done with and out of the way trying to get as many points as we can.

“Whether its home or away, it doesn’t really matter to be honest as theres no fans anyway, so it doesn’t really matter where you play. I don’t feel any different playing at Priestfield or playing at MK Dons to playing at Ipswich, it doesn’t matter to be because every game seems the same in empty quiet stadiums and its eleven players against eleven players and the best team on the day will win as there’s no lift from anyone really!

“To me it doesn’t matter where it is, but the sooner we get the bigger name teams out of the way now like the Ipswich’s, the Sunderland’s and the Portsmouth’s, who we should have done better against on Tuesday night.

“I think it can only be positive for us as I think that fans will come back at some point and you’d rather go to Sunderland and Ipswich with no fans rather than full of fans that’s for sure! We have to look at it as a positive and try to pick up as many points as we can.”