Gillingham’s final two games of their pre-season campaign are the closest thing they’ll get to a League 2 challenge before the real business begins.

The Gills lost 4-0 to League 1 Cambridge United in a behind-closed-doors match on Tuesday afternoon and tackle National League Dagenham away this Saturday - ideal preparation for the new season which gets under way next weekend at Stockport.

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Manager Neil Harris said: “[Cambridge was] an opportunity to go and play against a team above us in the pyramid.

“I look at Cambridge and Dagenham as a real opportunity for us to play against two opponents that are going to be a lot more like what we are going to face in League 2 over the first few weeks of the season.

“Obviously Southampton (in the League Cup) becomes a real random one in the middle of it because they are going to make 6,000 passes, dominate the ball and it won’t be League 2-like, but those two games are really important for us moving forward.

“The players will get more minutes and that’s the main thing. We are still looking at formations and combinations, we are still looking to improve in the window, we still have to think about that if players come in this week and where are they are minutes-wise, what minutes do they need?”

The Gills do have a game at Sittingbourne on Tuesday if anyone’s in need of extra minutes. A young Gills team played Lordswood on Tuesday night, losing 1-0.

The League 2 season kicks off next Saturday with a trip to one of the promotion favourites.

Gillingham will hope to stay injury free in these last few days of pre-season.

Losing Lewis Walker early in the summer was a blow while Oli Hawkins has missed much of the pre-season action with a heel injury. He was expected back this week.

The medical team are monitoring the rest closely.

“I am pleased with where we are, physically,” said the Gills boss.

“Timmy (Dieng) and Jayden (Clarke) were going to go to 90 minutes (last Saturday against Dartford) but we took them off at 81 and 85 respectively because of the distance they covered in the game.

“That’s the beauty of having a very educated and talented sports science department, in that we can track that during the course of a game.

“They got to a dangerous level of minutes and distance and we didn’t need to take that risk. I am really pleased with

where everyone is at minutes-wise, we are about where we expect.

“It is about making sure the players get the right distance covered, the right speed, and as many minutes as we need in their legs and that will be the main outcome in those two games, coupled with the football side.

“Can we keep adapting our build-up play and keep progressing in the final third, with sharpness and quality and make sure defensively we sharpen up around the box, because we want a clean-sheet mentality as well.”