Gillingham are safe from relegation with three games remaining but have plenty of motivation to beat Bradford City this weekend.

Bradford’s former player Timothee Dieng will be heading back to Valley Parade with a Gills side buoyed by a win over the league leaders Leyton Orient and determined to beat another top side.

More: Injury blow for Gills forward

While Gillingham have been beating all-comers at Priestfield, they haven’t had so much joy away from home, particularly against the top sides. It’s something the players are keen to rectify before the season is out.

“We want to test ourselves,” said the Frenchman. “Bradford is a big test and our away form hasn’t been good recently, just for ourselves to prove that we can actually go away and win games against top sides.

“We lost at home against Bradford, we want to go and compete with this type of club and this type of team, it is about standards, we want to go 100% until the end.

“Bradford are a good team but we have enough to cause them problems and to beat them.

“Our home form has been tremendous, we have qualities to beat any team and now we have to do it away from home, and that is what we will be looking to do on Saturday.”

Dieng spent two seasons with Bradford between 2016-18. The club got to the Wembley play-off final in his first season, facing Neil Harris’ Millwall side for a chance to win a place in the Championship. It was a 1-0 win for the London side that day.

The following year saw Bradford finish mid-table, Dieng left that summer and the Yorkshire club continued to slip backwards, before relegation into League 2. This is their fourth season in the bottom tier of the EFL.

“I had a great time there, it was amazing,” said the midfielder. “It’s a big club, big fanbase and did quite well. I’m really looking forward to going back there and putting on a performance with Gillingham.

“When I left, I think the club wasn’t in the best place, the chairman was making some weird decisions, but I am still surprised they are in League 2. It is a massive club, they should be League 1 or even the Championship. I wish them the best - but not on Saturday.

“There will be 20,000 there (on Saturday), they’re pushing for promotion, the crowd will be big, the atmosphere good. As a footballer you want to be in these types of games, I am really excited to be back at Valley Parade. I hope they are nice to me, we will see, I don’t think I did too badly there.”

Dieng joined the Gills from League 1 Exeter in January. It was a surprise move at the time, dropping a division for a side battling against relegation. He had been a key men for Exeter in their promotion campaign from League 2 last season - now the target for the Gills for 2023/24.

He said: “At Exeter, the last month when I was there, I wasn’t really playing. I could feel the manager maybe had changed my role in the team from a starter to maybe a squad player.

“I heard an agent talking to me about Gillingham might be interested and I met with the board, Brad (Galinson) the chairman, Paul Scally (director) and Kenny Jackett (director of football). I could see the project here was big and the club ambitious. I saw the way Brad was talking about the club and he was excited. I thought, ‘why not? Let’s try it’.

“I don’t regret my decision, I am happy, we are safe, with an exciting season coming.

“We have showed in the second part of the season we are one of the best teams in the league. The lads are ready to for it next season and push for promotion.”

Dieng joined the Gills as a midfielder but has spoken about starting out as a central defender when he was in France - a position he’s still pretty handy at.

His first senior game was for French side Brest, against a Paris Saint-Germain team celebrating a title and saying farewell to David Beckham. Dieng had the task of marking Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

“It was a tough day at the office!” he recalled. “We lost 3-1, it could have been more to be fair, Zlatan scored a couple, from a free-kick and open play. He is a pretty good player!

“I would say centre-mid is my best position but I wouldn’t mind playing centre-back in the later stages of my career.”

The Gills beat Leyton Orient on Tuesday night, a result which guaranteed the team’s survival. Dieng knew all along they would be safe.

“The main target was to stay in the league, we’ve done it,” he said. “From day one I knew we would because of what I had seen in training, in games, that we had the quality to win games and stay in the division.

“It was a bizarre game but a relief to get to 51 points and now we need to keep that momentum and to move onto next season.”