Gillingham F.C.
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Template:Football club infobox Gillingham F.C. is a football team based in the town of Gillingham, Kent. They are currently in the Football League Championship. They play home games at Priestfield Stadium.
Established in 1893 as New Brompton FC, they changed names to Gillingham in 1913. They gained election to the Football League Division 3 in 1920, but were relegated back to the Southern League in 1938. In 1950 they won re-election to the Football League. Over the next 50 years, the club played entirely in the lowest two divisions of the Football League, winning promotion in 1964 and 1974 but being relegated again in 1968 and 1989. During the managership of Gerry Summers and Keith Peacock in the 1980s the Gills several times came close to promotion to the old Division Two and birthed the careers of players like Micky Adams, Steve Bruce and Tony Cascarino, who was famously bought from a local non-league team for a set of tracksuits and some corrugated iron.
In 1995, second from bottom in the Football League and on the verge of bankruptcy, a former office supplies salesman, Paul Scally, bought the club for £1.00. He brought in Tony Pulis as manager, who signed a dozen new players and led Gillingham to promotion in his first season, finishing second in the old Division Three, now Football League Two. In 1999 they lost an infamous Football League One play-off final against Manchester City. Following goals by the prolific partnership of Bob Taylor and Carl Asaba, 'The Gills' were 2-0 up with less than two minutes left but Manchester City scored twice, the equaliser in a hotly disputed four minutes of injury time, and after that won a penalty shoot-out 4-2.
After this Tony Pulis was sacked for gross misconduct and Peter Taylor became manager. In this season Gillingham went on a record breaking FA Cup run beating then Premiership teams Bradford City and Sheffield Wednesday until reaching the quarter final against Chelsea where they lost 5-0. They also finished in third place, only due to losing on the last day to Wrexham, and qualified for the play-offs again. They beat Stoke City over two legs of the semi-final and faced Wigan at Wembley Stadium. The game finished 1-1 after 90 minutes with Iffy Onoura scoring for the Gills. During the first period of extra time the Gills went 2-1 behind. However thanks to goals in the second period from Steve Butler and Andy Thomson the club was promoted to the Football League Championship.
As Peter Taylor had only signed a 1 year deal, Leicester City, then in the Premiership poached him to be their new manager. Andy Hessenthaler then became the player-manager of the side. He gained league finishes of 13th, 12th and 11th in his first 3 seasons, however last season saw the club escape relegation with a last day goaless draw at Stoke City. John Gorman who was Glenn Hoddle's assistant as England manager was appointed to help Andy Hessenthaler as the side started the 2004/2005 season poorly, but as they continued to struggle at the wrong end of the table Hessenthaler resigned as manager in late November. Somewhat uniquely he continued to be employed as a player. Gorman succeeded Hessenthaler in a caretaker capacity before leaving the club to take the manager's job at Wycombe Wanderers. Gillingham then appointed former boss Stan Ternant as manager, but despite a late run of positive results, he couldn't prevent the Gills' relegation to League One on the last day of the season.
The team play in blue and white.
External link
- Gills online (http://www.gillsconnect.com)
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League competitions |
Cup competitions | |
| FA Premier League | FA Cup | |
| The Football League (Champ, 1, 2) | England (men) | League Cup |
| Football Conference (Nat, N, S) | FA Community Shield | |
| Northern Premier League (Prem, 1) | (women) | Football League Trophy |
| Southern League (Prem, 1W, 1E) | List of clubs | FA Trophy |
| Isthmian League (Prem, 1, 2) | FA Vase | |
| English football league system | Records | FA NLS Cup |
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