Defender Conor Masterson believes signing permanently with Gillingham will give him the best chance of making it back to the top.

The Irishman grew up at Liverpool where he was thrown into training by marking the club’s formidable front three of Sadio Mané, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah, before moving onto QPR.

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Masterson, now 24, enjoyed two loan spells at Gillingham before committing to a permanent deal this summer and he’s delighted to be back with a club that could give him the platform he needs.

“The reason I am here is because of Neil Harris (the Gills manager) and David Livermore (the assistant). They have given me my chance to build my career and I want to repay them by winning football matches. Let’s hope (I move up) with Gillingham because it’s a sleeping giant, as they say!

“I have been grateful to Neil because without him and Dave Livermore I wouldn’t be where I am today. A lot of credit goes to them and their staff because it means a lot to me and I appreciate it.”

Masterson hasn’t forgotten his time at Liverpool as a teenager - giving him the motivation to play at the highest level he can, just like his mates.

“I was around a lot of good players!” he said. “There were loads of good players and the one who sticks out is Trent Alexander-Arnold who played in my youth team.

“I was living the dream. It had got to January, there were a few injuries and they just called me up to the first team training and said I would be with them until the foreseeable.

“Every day I was in there for three or four months, until the end of the season, it was unbelievable.

“If they were getting ready for a game I would be on the other team, against that front three of Mané, Salah and Firmino. You do learn quite a lot playing against them! It was a great experience and hopefully I get back to that level.

“Just looking at those players and learning from Virgil van Dijk, Dejan Lovren, Joel Matip, Joe Gomez and playing against Mané, Firmino and all these players and seeing the leadership side of James Milner and Jordan Henderson and how good a players there were and Adam Lallana at the time as well, it was unbelievable.

“It gave me courage and optimism because Trent, who was playing in my youth team, was then playing (for the first team), I felt like if he was doing it I could do it, it was good times.”

He’ll need to take a different route than his former team-mate Alexander if he wants to head back up the leagues, just like some of his old youth team pals are now doing, with Ovie Ejaria at Reading, Herbie Kane at Barnsley and Yan Dhanda with Ross County.

Masterson has impressed with the Gills and was made captain in the second half at Dover in last weekend’s 4-0 pre-season friendly win.

He said: “The gaffer came to me and said, ‘I have liked your leadership skills and would like you to be captain’ and I said ‘yes, perfect’, I appreciated it and took it on.

“I would like to say I am one of the leaders in the group, but I am still learning the game, like us all, and I just want to help, that’s all and showcase my talents.

“I am still learning the game and have to respect the older lads like Shaun (Williams), Max (Ehmer), Hawks (Oli Hawkins), Nico (Tom Nichols) and Jonny (Williams) now.

“They have all been around for a long time and I just want to be one of them now and kick on with my career.”

Masterson helped the Gills to a clean sheet and also scored from a well-worked corner routine at Dover.

“We have worked on that (corner routine) last year,” he said. “It was nice to be back and nice to get on the scoresheet early.”