The away draw at Southend is the first time that the Gills will have played away from Priestfield in the competition since reaching the semi-final stage back in the 1998-99 season.

We have met the Shrimpers twice before under different formats of the competition. The first was at the start of the 1981-82 campaign when the Football League Group Cup was used as a pre-season tournament. Gillingham were drawn with the Shrimpers, Wimbledon and Orient in the Group Cup.

Having lost 4-0 to Wimbledon at Plough Lane in their first game on August 15, the Gills entertained Southend here at Priestfield four days later. A crowd of 1,974 witnessed the following Gills team battle out a goalless draw - Hillyard, Sharpe, Ford, Bruce, Weatherly, White, Powell, Duncan, Tydeman, Lee, Westwood. The final group game against Orient ended 1-1 but mean't the Gills failed to qualify for the quarter-finals.

Then in 1989-90 Gillingham were drawn with Southend and Cambridge United in the Preliminary Round of the Leyland DAF Cup. On November 7 the following Gills team - Hillyard, Haylock, Johnson, O'Shea, Place, Palmer, Trusson, Eeles, Lovell, Heritage (Gavin), Manuel travelled to Roots Hall but lost the game 1-0 in front of 1,650 fans. A 2-0 win against Cambridge put the Gills through to the First Round where they lost 1-0 at Bristol Rovers

Last season it took a 66^th minute goal from Cody McDonald, then of Norwich City, to knock the Gills out at the Southern Section 2^nd Round stage having earlier beaten Colchester United 4-3 on penalties following a 1-1 draw - Simeon Jackson netting from the spot in normal time. That made up for a 1-0 defeat against the Essex club in 2008-09.

The previous season (2007-08) saw Gillingham reach the Semi-Final. A 4-3 win over Luton came thanks to a Chris Dickson hat-trick and another from Mark Bentley who took advantage of a Chris Perry howler to net a late winner. That was followed by a 4-0 win against then Conference side Dagenham & Redbridge, this time the goals came from Craig Armstrong, Aaron Brown, Dennis Oli and Dickson again. MK Dons were the victors in the semi winning 5-4 on penalties following a 1-1 draw, Craig Stone and Jemal Johnson had both scored in the final six minutes of normal time.


Chris Dickson - scored a hat-trick against Luton.

In 2006-07 the Gills lost 2-1 to Nottingham Forest in the opening round, the game coming just three days after a league meeting between the two teams. Jack Lester and Grant Holt put the visitors two-ahead before Gary Mulligan pulled one back.

It was another penalty loss in 2005-06 when Wycombe won 3-1 from the spot. The teams had drawn 2-2 in the 90 minutes, Matthew Jarvis scoring both Gillingham's goals. That followed a 2-0 home win against Crawley Town in the First Round - Danny Jackman and Frannie Collin finding the net.

Before that we didn't appear in the competition, as we were in the upper echelons of the Football League, until you get to 1999-2000. Mind you we didn't stay in too long that season, getting thumped 3-0 by Torquay United at home.

Then we get back to the aforementioned 1998-99 campaign. The First Round saw Gillingham travel to play Colchester at Layer Road in December 1998 where the Gills enjoyed an emphatic 5-1 win thanks to two goals from Robert Taylor (2) and others from Carl Asaba, Adrian Pennock and Paul Smith. Then a single goal from Andy Hessenthaler in the 76^th minute saw them beat Swansea at the Vetch Field. Next was a Quarter-Final tie at Torquay where Robert Taylor cracked home a stunning effort for the only goal of the game.

Robert Taylor - great goal at Plainmoor