By Luke Cawdell

Gillingham keeper Alan Julian heads back to the club where he grew up on Saturday.

Julian, pictured, spent over a decade at Brentford before getting back into the professional game with the Gills after a spell at non-league Stevenage.

He still lives near the ground in west London and will be keen to impress.

"I’’m looking forward to it, although I don’t know if I’m playing yet," said Julian, who has played nine successive games since replacing the injured Simon Royce in December.

"It would be nice to go there. I spent over 10 years there and know the ground like the back of my hand. It’s only a few minutes from my house and it would be nice to go back and play but we’ll see.

"Up until the end I had a good time and a lot of good memories there, it was a good club. I was unhappy to leave but that’s football."

Julian, 26, left Brentford in 2005 and made more than 150 appearances for Stevenage before moving to Priestfield 18 months ago.

He added: "A lot of people said to me, ‘don’t go to non-league, try and stay in the league’ but at the end of the day beggers can’t be choosers.

"I was leaving Brentford and didn’t have many options. I went to Stevenage and believed in myself that I could come back."