Gillingham v Peterborough preview: Mark Bonner’s men take on last season’s Bristol Street Motors Trophy winners at Priestfield in Group D South opener

Tuesday night’s EFL Trophy match at Priestfield will see both managers embrace the opening stage of the much-maligned competition.

Gillingham manager Mark Bonner is a fan of the tournament - open to League 1 and 2 clubs along with invited top-flight under-21 teams - while midweek counterpart Darren Ferguson led his Peterborough team to victory at Wembley in last season’s competition and would love a return trip.

Gillingham host Peterborough on Tuesday night (7pm kick off) in their Group D opener. Stevenage and Crystal Palace under-21s make up the four-team group.

“I really like the competition,” said Bonner, in contrast to other recent managers at Priestfield who haven’t been so keen on their involvement.

“It can give young players an opportunity that they might not have got normally and it can give players that need minutes a game.

“For us, at the moment, with players returning it might be really well timed for some.

“It can make you quite a lot of money quite quickly if you do well in it. If you get through the group stage and win knockout games you can start to get a bit excited that you can see the big arch.

“I dream of walking out with a team at Wembley at some point in my career.. That and the play-offs are the only two realistic opportunities to do it.

“It doesn’t mean that we won’t make changes going into games, because we will. We will try and win those games. We have a tough group but certainly it’s a competition to do well in, if we can.”

Peterborough beat Wycombe Wanderers 2-1 in last season’s final at Wembley.

Ferguson says the defending champions will continue to treat the tournament with “very high importance” and he’s told Posh fans that they’ll be sending “a strong team” to Priestfield to “hopefully go