It’s a big day for the Turner family on Saturday.

While goalkeeper Jake Turner will make his first league start for Gillingham at Newport, his older sister Millie will be heading to the Emirates for Manchester United Women’s game at Super League leaders Arsenal.

They’ve got their football-mad dad to thank for helping both of them get into football.

Jake said: “My dad was always into football and we were always in the garden playing together. I’d annoy my sister by beating her in the air so she stuck me in the net to practice her shooting!

“We would get friends around and play every day and we would always have a football at home, kicking it around the house, mum would hate it, but dad would be getting involved so it was okay!

“My dad travels up and down the country to watch, he watches me on the Saturday and watches her on the Sunday so does some miles. She’s playing Saturday this week, though, and my dad is at the Emirates but I’ll let him off on that one.”

Manchester United Women are third in the WSL and Millie Turner - 26 and two-and-a-half years older than Jake - is back this season after a health condition that kept her out for the second-half of the 2021/22 season.

While his sister has remained playing top-flight football close to home, Jake has moved around for his career, starting out at Bolton before spending three years at Newcastle. In the past two seasons, he’s experienced league football at Morecambe and Colchester before agreeing a permanent switch to Gillingham.

He’s had to be patient for his opportunity with the Gills, playing as back-up keeper to Glenn Morris and being used in cup games, including the Carabao Cup win over Brentford. Gillingham's best results this season have come in cup competitions.

With an injury to Morris that will keep him out until at least Christmas time, it’s now Turner’s chance in the spotlight.

“I am absolutely gutted for Glenn,” he said. “He’s a great guy and a great goalkeeper and I have learned so much from him in the time I have been here with him.

“I have wished him all the best, telling him I am there for him if he needs anything. You have to be ready as a back-up keeper, you never know when your chance is going to come. I feel ready, feel confident and hopefully I can stay in the team for as long as possible.”

Turner came off the bench against Northampton Town in the league last weekend after Morris had landed badly and damaged his shoulder.

“I was hoping he was going to be alright,” Turner said. “At the end of the day, he is a mate, we all get on, we’re friends, I didn’t want it to be serious.

“I wanted him to get up and continue with the game and then when the staff say ‘get ready’ you start to switch onto game mode, I had to get on with it.”

It’s been a whirlwind few days for the keeper. He was picked to play against Brentford and made several top saves to keep Gills in the game before Mikael Mandron’s equaliser took it to penalties and shoot-out success.

Turner had been beaten five times from the penalty spot before the sixth effort crashed off the bar in sudden-death.

“They were good penalties,” he recalled. “I dived the right way for two of them I think, but the pace beat me and when you come up against a player like Ivan Toney, who might have only missed one penalty in his whole career, you know you are coming up against some of the best penalty takers in the country.

“When (Mikkel Damsgaard) hit the bar, I didn’t know we had won the game. I just thought he had missed, I gave a fist pump and then when I saw everyone running towards me, I was buzzing, we went straight to the crowd, it was a great moment.”

The Gills were brought back down to earth with a 2-0 league defeat to Northampton on the Saturday before edging past Fylde in Tuesday night’s FA Cup first-round replay.

Turner said: “We have to focus on the league now, we need to turn the draws and losses into wins. The games I have played in I have been pleased with how I have done personally.

“We train well, we are putting in the effort, it is just a matter of time now when we do start getting the results and we will start to climb up the table.”