Gillingham should no longer be prey for the bully boys.

Head coach Ady Pennock and director of football Peter Taylor have already addressed a lack of physicality in the team, bringing in five new players all of whom are over six-foot tall.

New striker Tom Eaves is a giant at 6ft 5inch and most recent addition Conor Wilkinson is just two inches shorter.

Gillingham’s lack of height was evident to Taylor, as he watched the team last season from the sidelines.

He said: “I saw the Bolton game last year. Bolton were massive and Gillingham were small and every time there was a corner, if you’re a Gillingham fan you would be nervous, we don’t want that.

“We want to say we can handle the defending and we also want to be quietly confident we can score at the other end. That is what we have gone for.

“We have concentrated on the types we needed in the changing room and the positions we need.

“I only saw the team play a few times last year. They certainly weren’t good enough defensively at set-pieces and probably not big enough. That is why in the end we have gone for the ones that we have.”

Alex Lacey (6ft 2inch), Luke O’Neill (6ft) and Gabriel Zakuani (6ft 1inch) certainly add height to a defence that conceded more goals than any other in League 1 last season.

The Gills could also have the league’s biggest goalkeeper if 6ft 9inch Czech stopper Tomas Holy wins the battle to start ahead of transfer-listed Stuart Nelson.

Read the full story in Monday's Medway Messenger.