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Gillingham’s opening game of the League 1 season is as tough as they come.
Saturday’s opponents Hull City dropped out of the Championship after a string of defeats when the teams returned to complete the season post-lockdown.
Gills boss Steve Evans knows his team are up against the division’s heavyweights - a club that have been in and out of the Premier League since 2008. They were last relegated from the top-flight in 2017.
Evans said: “They will want to bounce straight back and I know the power of Hull City. I was in Yorkshire for many years with Rotherham and Leeds United and I know how much they want to start well but we want to start well too and we want to make it competitive.
“I know their manager (Grant McCann). He is a friend of mine and lives local to me. Grant will want to prove he is the manager that will lead them back up to the Championship. It is too big a club to be in League 1, it’s another giant.”
Hull striker Tom Eaves will miss out on a return to Priestfield.
The popular front-man, who scored 38 goals in 69 league starts for the Gills, left for Hull last summer.
Eaves picked up an ankle injury and was substituted after half an hour of their Carabao Cup game against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light on Saturday, which they went onto win on penalties.
Tigers boss Grant McCann said: "We still don’t know the full extent. He’s not going to be available for Saturday."
He's been assessed for ligament damage. He suffered an ankle injury last season and would have missed more games had it not been for the Covid-19 mid-season interruption.
Another former Gillingham player, Alfie Jones, could also be involved. He was with the Gills on loan last season and has just signed for the Tigers on a permanent deal from Southampton. Jones was an unused substitute at the weekend.
Evans said: “Grant rang me about his character and his professionalism. He is one of the best young players you could ever wish to work for with how he has conducted himself.”
The game kicks-off at 3pm but once again the Priestfield gates will be looked to fans.
“It is just a shame,” Evans said. “That Town End would have had 2,500 Hull fans behind them. It would have been a great crowd and a buzzing atmosphere.
“We need to create that ourselves but that is the same for every football club up and down the country. I don’t like it, I think it’s rubbish, but you have to be self-motivated.
“Some players will play better with no crowd, some respond to spectators and a crowd.
“It is really sad in these times it has to be done but I am very respectful for people who have lost loved ones. I have been through that pain recently, nothing to do with Covid, but my mother (died) and it was the worst two weeks of my life so I can imagine if you are watching someone die from that virus it must be incredibly tough.”
Fans were hoping to be back inside stadiums in October, at a limited capacity, but a pilot trial with League 2 side Cambridge United has been cancelled.
Gills season ticket holders, meanwhile, have been invited to watch Southern Counties East sides Lordswood and Hollands & Blair at discounted prices this season.
Fans showing their tickets on the gate can access Blair’s Star Meadow for £5 and Lordswood’s Martyn Grove for £4.
