Gillingham's pre-season is taking shape and manager Mark Stimson is hoping for the friendly fixtures to be just that.

After some feisty friendly action last season Stimson (pictured right) wants to give his players an easier ride this time around.

He said: "We’ve had a long season with a lot of tough games and this year’s pre-season we’ll ease down a bit and not try and play teams where it’s their cup final when we play them.

"Last year we played Stevenage and Grays and it was like a cup final and there were times in the games where it was getting a little close.

"We want it to be competitive but we don’t want people breaking legs and necks.

"At Dover there was an outrageous challenge on Barry Fuller and you have to ask, ‘do we need this?’

"A lot of the games will be low key and we’ll just try and get one big one at home.

"Whoever we play we’ll be ready for the start of the season."

The players return for pre-season training on Thursday, July 2 and their first game is against Tonbridge Angels on July 11.

Games at Dartford (July 14), Faversham (July 16), Welling (July 18), Bishop’s Stortford (July 21), Aveley (July 22), Grays (July 25), Folkestone (July 25) and Thurrock (August 1) follow before the League 1 campaign starts on August 8.

League fixtures are released on Wednesday, June 17 and the first round of the Carling Cup is drawn a day earlier.

*Gillingham players Adam Miller and John Nutter spent the weekend recuperating after undergoing hernia operations.

The pair, who are close friends off the pitch, went under the knife on Wednesday as they seek to clear up injuries that hampered them during the end of the season.

It’s the second time in two years that Miller has been operated on, after undergoing key-hole surgery last summer to alleviate a similar problem.