Former Chatham Town manager and Gillingham managerial target Scott Lindsey is back in League 2 after taking over as head coach at MK Dons.

Lindsey was heavily linked to the Gills in October last year as a possible replacement for Neil Harris before Stephen Clemence took the job as head coach.

The former Chats boss enjoyed a successful season at Crawley last term, winning promotion at Wembley after beating Crewe Alexandra in the play-off final.

During the summer most of that promotion-winning side left, however, leaving Lindsey and his staff putting together a new squad for a tougher challenge in League 1.

He leaves Crawley sitting 18th in the third-tier for MK Dons, who have underachieved so far this season, the Dons entering the weekend 19th in League 2.

Lindsey - who played for the Gills in the mid-90s along with a host of other Kent clubs - left his post as Chatham manager to join Swindon Town, where he worked his way up to manage the side and from there moved to Crawley. He’d previously enjoyed promotion at Forest Green Rovers while assistant manager.

He takes with him former Gills no.2 Jamie Day and Chatham Town’s former director of football and coach Carl Laraman.

Lindsey said: “I'm so excited to be joining this wonderful football club. I think it's clear to everyone just how much potential there is at MK Dons, and I'm thrilled to be joining Stadium MK to help achieve it.

“I'm really looking forward to working with Liam (Sweeting, sporting director) and Fahad (Al Ghanim, chairman) to build an ambitious and exciting football team for the people of Milton Keynes to get behind.

“I can't wait to get stuck in with the players, and look forward to meeting the supporters as soon as possible."

He takes charge of training his new team for the first time today (Thursday).

Gillingham travel to MK Dons in mid-December and welcome them to Priestfield in April.