Gillingham’s Capital One Cup draw hasn’t gone down well with club chairman Paul Scally.

Mr Scally penned an open letter to the Football League after Gillingham were handed a 510-mile midweek round trip to Plymouth in round one of the competition.

The draw was regionalised, north and south, but the Gills have been left with a match comparable in distance to a game in Liverpool.

“To say I’m staggered to have been in the hat with Plymouth Argyle when I’m told the draw is regionalised would be an understatement,” said the chairman.

“Is this logic gone completely mad? A 510 mile round trip, over 10 hours on a coach on a Tuesday night for a first round tie is sheer stupidity, in fact borders on inefficiency by the league in allowing two clubs so far apart to be competing at such an early stage in the competition.

“Exactly how many supporters do the league think we are going to be able to take, given they would have to take a day, or probably two days off work to make such a long and expensive trip.

“We have discussed many times over the years as a League about ensuring fans get a good deal, that we ensure we play “More Meaningful Matches’ especially in regards to midweek games, so where does this particular game fit into that ethos, or are we still learning, in fact it appears we have learnt nothing.

“Plymouth should be playing a side from the south-west, Gillingham should be playing a game in London or the south-east, just like Millwall, Barnet, Wycombe, Charlton and others are playing.

“I am hugely disappointed at this pairing and quite understandably our supporters will be horrified and disturbed at missing out on an opportunity to support their team.”

Gills fans will have been further frustrated following the announcement of the Football League fixtures on Wednesday.

The trip to Plymouth is followed directly by league games at Port Vale on the Saturday and then Bradford on the Tuesday night.

A midweek trip to Bradford isn’t the only long midweek trek faced by Gills fans, who will clock up around 9,000 miles following their team this season.

Towards the end of the season they will also have to travel to Fleetwood and Rochdale on Tuesday nights. The Gills, meanwhile, will be welcoming Fleetwood, Rochdale and Scunthorpe for midweek games.

Fan Damien Jarrett tweeted: “We've been stitched up with midweek games this year. Absolutely stitched up. Fleetwood? Bradford? Rochdale? All away? Really??”

Richard Gransden said: “Bradford, fleetwood & rochdale all midweek away & swindon away on boxing day???????? #gills #stitchup”

Anthony Giddings tweeted, sarcastically: “Good to see @football_league listened to our chairman's request for local Tuesday games- Fleetwood, Bradford & Rochdale away midweek.”

Prior to the football fixtures being announced, the Football League's fixture officer Paul Snellgrove spoke of his desire to make fixtures fan-friendly.

He said: “Midweek travel is another one of our big issues. Clubs and their supporters don't want to be travelling the length and breadth of the country in midweek. That said, this can be unavoidable on some occasions.

“It's a fine balance between making sure clubs have their more lucrative fixtures on prime dates but also ensuring they have acceptable travel on midweeks. Over 72 clubs, this balancing act proves to be a challenge.

“During our extensive review process we do look at all long journeys significantly and try to achieve the best solution overall. We will try and balance it out – if a club has five away trips, we'll do our best to make sure three or four out of those five aren't excessive in distance.

“One might be, but it will never be a case of every away trip being long distance, as we will always try to achieve a balance over a batch of away trips.”