Gillingham have been drawn into group A of the Checkatrade Trophy southern section.

They will face Crawley Town and Portsmouth in the opening round, along with one of eight invited teams, to complete the four-team group.

Those invited teams include Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham under-21 teams and Gillingham will find out who they face on Wednesday afternoon.

The other invited southern section teams are Brighton & Hove Albion, Fulham, Southampton, Swansea City and West Ham United. Those teams join the 48 clubs from League 1 and 2 in the competition.

Invited teams have been restricted to fielding two players over the age of 21 and more than 40 first-team appearances.

Gillingham won all three of their group matches last season, beating Southend, Colchester and Reading, before losing to Oxford United in round two.

A rule change for this season’s competition allows Football League clubs to include players in their teams who are out on loan at National League sides, or below.