Former manager Ronnie Jepson is looking forward to his Priestfield return.

Jepson left as Gillingham manager in September 2007 having lost five of his opening six games of that season.

He had led the Gills to a couple of mid-table finishes in League 1 during the previous two seasons in what was his first role as manager of a club.

He returns as first team coach of Cardiff on Saturday for the third round of the FA Cup.

Jepson said: “It was a great draw, a long way to go from Cardiff but it will be nice to go back, I have a lot of friends there who I am still in touch with.

“I speak with the chairman now and then on the phone – the good thing is that I left the club amicably.”

Jepson took over as manager early on in the 2005/06 season following the sacking of Neale Cooper, the Scot leaving shortly after the embarrassing FA Cup defeat at the hands of Brackley Town.

A 14th-place finish was achieved in Jepson’s first season and the Gills finished the following campaign sitting 16th. Unfortunately the start of the following season didn’t go to plan.

Jepson admitted he was left frustrated as Gills were unable to clinch several of the targets he wanted, leaving soon after the start of the 2007/08 season, to be eventually replaced by Mark Stimson.

Reflecting on that period, Jepson said: “It was a tough time. I got rid of quite a number of players which the chairman was happy with.

“I thought I had done really well doing that but the ones I wanted to replace them with never materialised. I had to go shopping elsewhere and I knew it was going to be a struggle.

“That was the frustrating part for me after doing the hard graft of getting people out of the building who I didn’t think were up to it for Gillingham.

“That’s football. It’s no fault of the chairman, I would love to have had the opportunity for it to have carried on but who knows? I might be back there one day. I loved my time there, I loved the people and the supporters were good to me and I still have people there I keep in touch with. I am looking forward to going back.”

Gillingham’s own first team coach Ian Cox played under Jepson and he’s one of several people that the former manager keeps in touch with.

Steve Lovell, the current Gills boss, was heading up the community department during his time there and Jepson said: “The good thing about Steve was that if you ever needed to have a chat or ask a question, Steve was always there. He is a really good guy, he is just a bandit at his golf!

“He has got an opportunity down there and I am pleased he is doing okay.”

Read more from Ronnie in this week's Medway Messenger newspaper