Club Overview

Club History

Early Years

In May 1893, the local success of a junior football side, Chatham Excelsior F.C., encouraged a group of businessmen to meet with a view to creating a football club which could compete in larger competitions. New Brompton F.C. was formed from the meeting, incorporating a number of Excelsior players. The gentlemen also purchased the plot of land which would later become Priestfield Stadium. The new club played its first match on 2 September 1893, losing 1–5 to Woolwich Arsenal's reserve side in front of a crowd of 2,000. New Brompton were among the founder members of the Southern League upon its creation in 1894, and were placed in Division Two. They were named Champions in the first season (1894–95) going on to defeat Swindon Town in a test match to win promotion.

In the seasons that followed, the club struggled in Division One, finishing bottom in the 1907–08 season, avoiding relegation only due to expansion of the league. Whilst the club's league performance was disappointing, the side did manage a famous cup victory over Football League First Division Sunderland and held Manchester City to a draw before losing in the replay. In 1913 the club renamed itself Gillingham F.C. but performances remained disappointing. The team finished bottom of Division One in the 1919–20 season but for a third time avoided relegation, due to the subsequent elevation of all Southern League Division One clubs to form the new Football League Division Three.

First Spell in the Football League

In the first season of the newly-created Football League Division Three, the 1920–21 season, Gillingham again finished bottom, and in the years to follow there was little improvement on this, the club continually finishing in the lower reaches of the bottom division. In 1938 the team finished bottom of the Third Division (South) and were required to apply for re-election for the fifth time since joining the league. This bid for re-election failed, with Gillingham returning to the Southern League and Ipswich Town being promoted in their place. Gillingham quickly established themselves as one of the stronger sides in the league, winning a local double of the Kent League and Kent Senior Cup in the 1945–46 season. In the 1946–47 season the team won both the Southern League Cup and the Southern League championship, during which they recorded a club record 12–1 victory over Gloucester City. The Gills also won the league title in 1948–49.

Return to Football League

In 1950 plans were announced to expand the Football League Division Three (South) from 22 to 24 teams and, taking into account their local success in the interim, Gillingham were re-elected to the Football League with a landslide vote. The team spent eight seasons in Division Three (South) before the restructuring of the league system for the 1958–59 season saw them placed in the newly-created Fourth Division. They remained in this division until 1964, when manager Freddie Cox led them to promotion, winning the first and so far only championship in the club's history. The team finished the season level on 60 points with Carlisle United, but with a better goal average (1.967 against 1.948), which was the tightest league title finish in Football League history.

After relegation back to the Fourth Division in 1970–71, the Gills were soon promoted back to the Third Division in the 1973–74 season. After this the club seemed to find its level in Division Three, regularly mounting a challenge for promotion which ultimately fell short each time, never more so than in 1986–87 when they reached the play-offs only to lose in the final to Swindon Town. During this period the club produced future stars Steve Bruce and Tony Cascarino, who was famously bought from non-league Crockenhill in exchange for a set of tracksuits.[17]

Recent High and Lows

Beset with financial problems, the club went into administration in January 1995, and by the end of the 1994–95 season faced the threat of being expelled from the Football League and closed down. In June 1995, however, a London-based businessman, Paul Scally, stepped in and bought the club for £1. He brought in new manager Tony Pulis, who led Gillingham to promotion in his first season, finishing second in the old Division Three (now Football League Two). In 1999 the Gills made the play-offs but lost in the Division Two play-off final to Manchester City. The Gills were 2–0 up with less than two minutes left only to see City score twice, the equaliser in injury time, and go on to win 3–1 in a penalty shoot-out.

Soon after the play-off loss, Pulis was sacked for gross misconduct, and Peter Taylor appointed manager. In the 1999–00 season Gillingham qualified for the play-offs again, where they faced Wigan Athletic in the final at Wembley Stadium. The game finished 1–1 after 90 minutes, but, thanks to goals in extra time from substitutes Steve Butler and Andy Thomson, the Gills won 3–2 and were promoted to Division One for the first time.

Taylor then left to manage Leicester City, and Andy Hessenthaler was appointed as player-manager. He led the club to their best ever league finish of eleventh in the 2002–03 season, but the following season saw the club narrowly avoid relegation on goal difference. Hessenthaler resigned as manager in November 2004, and new boss Stan Ternent was unable to prevent the Gills' relegation to League One. Ronnie Jepson took over as manager and led the team to two successive mid-table finishes, but resigned in September 2007. On 1 November 2007 Mark Stimson was appointed as the club's new manager.[2] At the end of the 2007–08 season the club was relegated from League One.

Club Rivalries

Due to Gillingham's position geographically, there have traditionally not been fierce local rivalries with neighbouring clubs, as the closest other League teams are based in London and Essex. The closest League team is Southend United, across the mouth of the River Thames. A 2003 fan survey revealed that Gillingham (along with Macclesfield Town, Stockport County, Torquay United and York City) were not considered to be rivals by supporters of any other club.

Millwall are currently considered to be the closest the Gills have to local rivals. Swindon Town are seen by many fans as the club's biggest rivals, stemming from bad-tempered matches between the two teams in 1979 and 1987. While Swindon fans generally do not consider Gillingham their biggest rivals, there was violence when they met at Priestfield in the 2005–06 season, their first meeting since a promotion play-off match in 1987. Following their promotion in 1989, Maidstone United became Kent's second League side. A friendly rivalry with Gillingham developed over the following seasons, with several Kent derby games, until Maidstone's financial troubles forced them to resign from the League in 1992.

Stars of the Current Squad

Club Legends

Most Appearances

Most Goals

Player Recognition & Awards

Team Honours

• Football League Fourth Division

- Champions (1963-64), runners-up (1973-74)

• Football League Third Division

- Runners-up (1995-96)

• Football League Second Division

- Play-off winners (1990-00), finalists (1986-87 & 1998-99)

• Southern Football League

- Champions (1946-47 & 1948-49)

• Southern Football League Division Two

- Champions (1894-95)

• Southern League Cup

- Winners (1946-47)

• Kent League

- Champions (1945-46)

• Kent League Cup

- Winners (1945-46)

• Kent Senior Cup

- Winners (1945-46 & 1947-48), runners-up (1938-38, 1948-49, 1949-50 & 1994-95)

Club Management

Uniforms

Although Gillingham have long been associated with the colours blue and white, the original New Brompton side wore a strip consisting of black and white striped shirts with black shorts. With the renaming of the club in 1913, the black and white strip was dropped in favour of red shirts with blue sleeves, emblazoned with the borough's coat of arms. The striped shirts returned after World War One, before finally being replaced with the now-familiar combination of plain blue shirts and white shorts in 1931.[34]

More recent years have seen several variations on the blue and white colour scheme. Several late 1990s strips featured blue and black striped shirts, recalling the original New Brompton stripes.

In the summer of 2003 it was controversially announced that the club's first choice shirts for the following season would be predominantly white, rather than blue. The announcement received such a hostile response from supporters that the white strip was replaced by one featuring blue and black hoops, which had originally been earmarked as the team's third choice kit.

Stadium

The Gills have played at Priestfield Stadium throughout their existence. The ground was originally purchased by the founders of the club through an issue of 1,500 £1 shares. Sources differ on whether the ground was named after the road on which the land stood, Priestfield Road, or whether the road was named after the ground; if the latter is the case then the origin of the ground's name is unknown. The ground was extensively developed prior to the 1930s, but there was then little change until the late 1990s and the arrival of Paul Scally as chairman. Three of the four stands were demolished and rebuilt between 1995 and 2000. The fourth stand, known as the Town End, was demolished to make way for a new stand, to be named the Brian Moore Stand after television sports commentator Brian Moore, who was a well-known Gills fan, but the club's financial situation has not allowed the new stand to be built and a temporary stand has been in place since 2004. On 1 June 2007 the stadium was officially renamed KRBS Priestfield Stadium as part of a new sponsorship deal with the Kent Reliance Building Society.

At its peak in the 1940s the official capacity of the stadium was listed as "between 25,000 and 30,000" but subsequent redevelopments, the removal of terraces and building of new facilities have seen this reduced to a current capacity of 11,582. In the 2007–08 season, the average attendance at home matches was 6,077, just 52% of capacity. The ground has also hosted home fixtures of the England women's national football team.

Sponsors

Kent Reliance Building Society

Important Links

http://www.gillinghamfootballclub.premiumtv.co.uk/
http://www.newsnow.co.uk/h/Sport/Football/League+Two/Gillingham

References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gillingham_F.C.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_Reliance_Building_Society
Triggs. Gillingham Football Club: A Chronology 1893–1984