An old face rolls back into town as Gillingham have announced Simon Royce has returned to the club as their goalkeeping coach.

The 47-year-old has held the same role at Brentford, having coached for seven years at Griffin Park following his retirement from playing.

Royce joined the Gills in April 2007 where he made his debut in the 3-2 home win over Port Vale. Royce was initially an emergency loan signing with the Gills having no fit goalkeepers for our final three matches of the season, and Simon went on to sign for the club on a permanent basis in August 2007.

In total Royce made 109 appearances during his time at the Gills between 2007 -2010, and was also voted supporters’ player of the year in 2007-08.

Royce also featured in all four English leagues, playing for Charlton and Leicester in the Premier League.

Simon will be working alongside new signing Jack Bonham, having previously worked together at Brentford, Joe Walsh and all the young goalkeepers, who will be featuring for the youth teams this season.

Gills Manager, Steve Evans said: “I’ve taken the opportunity to interview a number of very qualified goalkeeper coaches over the last few weeks and it would be fair to say the outstanding candidate was indeed Simon.

“Obviously Gills fans will be aware of him for his time with the club, and his playing career. Simon had an excellent spell working under Dean Smith, at Brentford, and following my conversations with Dean it became clear in my mind that this was the ideal man to become part of the background team as we lead the Gills into the new season.”