by Luke Cawdell

Manager Martin Allen hopes his new Gillingham team can make it a birthday to remember at Bristol City.

The Gills head to City’s Ashton Gate for their Capital One Cup first round tie on Tuesday virtually at full strength.

“What will be a nice birthday present will be a victory at Bristol and coming home with a place in the next round,” said Allen, who will be 47 on the day of the game. “That would be a wonderful birthday for me.”

A successful pre-season programme has seen only a handful of players receive minor knocks.

Andy Frampton has been resting a minor foot injury but few others have problems, in stark contrast to last season, where the Gills started the campaign with only one fit striker.

This time around Danny Kedwell, Adam Birchall, Deon Burton and Ben Strevens will be fighting it out for a starting role.

“It has been a good pre-season, very enjoyable with no serious injuries, just a couple of knocks,” said Allen (pictured). “Overall it has been a great first month.”

And after a month in the job Allen is ready now for the real action to begin.

He said: “There can’t be a better job in the world than being a football manager in pre-season because you train your players every day and we went to France for five or six days, which was lovely. There is no stress or hassle because there are no games to win.

“When we play at Bristol City, then when we play at home to Bradford in the first league game, the job intensity changes.

“How we cope with that and how we deal with that for the next 10 months is going to be key because we have got some good players. We’ve had some good results in pre-season and underneath I’m bubbling and smiling without giving too much away.”

Burton will not feature as he has not received international clearance while new father Joe Martin is yet to return to training so will miss out.

The ill Jack Payne is set to miss another 10 days while Charlie Webster, 16, has been added to the squad after impressing for the youth team against the first team two weeks ago.

The Gills kick-off their League 2 programme at home to Bradford this Saturday.

Gillingham squad for Bristol City: Charlie Allen, Adam Birchall, Bradley Dack, Callum Davies, Connor Essam, Jack Evans, Matt Fish, Tom Flanagan, Tommy Forecast, Andy Frampton, Danny Jackman, Danny Kedwell, Charlie Lee, Lewis Montrose, Stuart Nelson, Ben Strevens, Charlie Webster, Chris Whelpdale.

Do you think Gillingham can make a winning start to the campaign at Ashton Gate? Have your say below.