WHILE City can enjoy plenty of local trips in a very northern-oriented League One, spare a thought for Gillingham.

The Kent side face more miles on the motorway than anyone with so many of the clubs Birmingham and beyond.

By the time they get home at some ungainly hour tomorrow morning, the Gills will have covered the equivalent distance of travelling from London to Latvia in the past week.

The so-called “regionalised” draw in the Capital One Cup first round saw them sent to Plymouth, a round trek of just under 600 miles, last Tuesday. And at the weekend, they were back on the long road to Port Vale.

But don’t expect to capitalise on any travel sickness with the Gills enjoying an unbeaten start so far.

Having kicked off with a thumping 4-0 win over title favourites Sheffield United, who couldn’t handle the Gills at set-pieces, a come-from-behind cup win at Home Park was followed up with a 1-1 draw in the Potteries.

Bradley Dack is the man City will need to keep a very close eye on after scoring in all three games so far. His fast start is inevitably attracting interest already but Gillingham do have the security of nailing him down on a long-term contract last season.

Gillingham’s record since Justin Edinburgh left Newport to take the hot-seat is play-off form. They have lost only four of the 21 games since.

His side is built around youth – other than 36-year-old keeper Stuart Nelson, the average age of the outfield players is around 21.

John Egan, who has come back from that horrible broken leg when on loan at City, Brendan Dickenson and Luke Norris were all signed by Peter Taylor.

But they have flourished since the shackles came off when the former Bantams boss departed, whose more conservative approach did not go down well with the Priestfield faithful.

Over the summer, Edinburgh has also added teenagers Jordan Houghton from Chelsea, Cardiff’s Adedeji Oshilaja and Emmaneul Osadebe from the Tottenham foundation academy to increase his squad’s youthful look.