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 and get a result.”

Posh started last season’s Trophy campaign a year ago with a 2-0 win over Cambridge United - then managed by Mark Bonner, who now starts off Gills’ 2024/25 challenge against the same opposition.

The Gills missed out on the knockout stage last season after finishing outside the top two in their group. They also finished third of four the season before and bottom of the pile in 2021/22

Gillingham haven’t qualified for the knockout stage since the 2020/21 Covid season, reaching round two and the knockout stage where they were beaten by a Cambridge United team who were then managed by Mark Bonner.

It was the only match of the season that the Gills played in front of spectators as Bonner’s men - who claimed promotion from League 2 that season - won 2-0 as a crowd of 724 watched on in December 2020.