The Recent Highs and Lows of Gillingham Football Club

A while back I wrote the article “A brief History of Aston Villa.” It’s clear that Aston Villa has an illustrious history, having participated in, and won, several very prestigious tournaments.

Now the same can’t be said for my beloved Gillingham FC, whose history, how do I say, is slightly less interesting, to say the least. For many years we have languished at the wrong end of the Football League, and have never reached the dizzy heights of top-flight football.

That’s why, instead of going into a rather dull history of the odd promotion here or there, and for some reason the never-ending amount of relegations, I shall instead explain the recent high and low times my local club has faced.

In May 1995, Gillingham FC could well have been no more. The club was beset by numerous financial problems, and had been in administration since January. The Kent based team could not keep up with debt repayments, several of their players left, and they looked almost certain to be expelled from the Football League. Other teams were already looking to welcome new supporters from the Southeast.

But in June 1995, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. Gillingham’s saviour had turned up. He was a London-based businessman, and was the antithesis of all Gills’ fans. Paul Scally, the man who stepped in and stopped this whole malarkey, was a Millwall fan. But despite this fact, and the fact that even today many Gillingham fans would still love to see him leave, his arrival has been nothing but beneficial for Gillingham FC.

For the 1995/96 season, Scally brought in Tony Pulis as manager, a man who would later reach the heights of Premiership footballing managing Stoke City.

In his first season, Pulis led the Gills to promotion, finishing second in Division Three (now the Coca Cola League Two). Having been in Division Two for three years, Gillingham almost secure promotion to Division One, when in 1999 they made the play-offs, against Manchester City.

When you think back on it, a now EPL manager was managing Gillingham in the third tier of English football, and in the league came up against Manchester City, who now are an EPL side, owned by the Abu Dhabi group of the UAE, and have an estimated wealth of £550bn.

Gillingham lost the play-off final back in 1999. They were 2-0 up with only two minutes left, and promotion was all but theirs. In football, the cliché saying that ‘football is a cruel game’ was more than appropriate here, as Manchester City scored twice in injury time. The game was 2-2, and then 3-1 on penalties, as Manchester City were heading to Division One.

To make matters worse, Tony Pulis was sacked soon after the match, for gross misconduct. We had a great manager, gone. Gillingham fans have always been accustomed to misery, and once again around Medway there was the feeling of "here we go again."

But for the 1999/00 season, another now household name was presented to the media as Gillingham supremo. Former England U-21 manager, and senior England caretaker boss, Peter Taylor was appointed the new manager at the home of professional football in Kent.

Peter Taylor, now manager at League Two Wycombe Wanderers, went one better than Pulis when he managed to reach the play-off final again the following season, and this time win it.

Extra time goals from substitutes Steve Butler and Andy Thomson ensured the 1-1 draw in regulatory time would not carry on for another half-hour. The 1999-00 Division Two playoff final finished 3-1 to Gillingham, with the Gills going into a place they had never been before, the dreamland that was Division One (now the Coca Cola Championship).

The team Gillingham beat that day was Wigan Athletic. Need I say much more than just look where both teams are today? Taking that point of view, I’d rather have lost that day; who knows where the Gills could’ve ended up?

Peter Taylor left the next season (2000/01), and arguably one of the best players/managers ever for Gillingham FC, Andy Hessenthaler, was appointed manager.

In the 2002-03 season, Hessenthaler led the Gills to their best ever Football League finish to date. A highly successful season meant Gillingham finished 11th in Division One.

The next season saw the Gills narrowly avoid relegation, on goal difference.

This is where the doom and gloom, the recent lows, started for Gillingham Football Club. Severe financial difficulties were once again at large for the Gills; the collapse of ITV Digital one of the catalysts for Gillingham’s spiral into heavy debt.

In November 2004, Andy Hessenthaler resigned as manager of Gillingham, and his successor, Stan Ternent, could not prevent the Gills’ descend into League One.

In 2006, with the debt ever increasing, chairman Paul Scally took decisive action and cut his own salary by 60% in order to reduce overheads. The same year EDF Energy, energy supplier to Gillingham’s home stadium, cut off its energy supply to Priestfield as a result of unpaid bills, amounting to £100,000. Where are the Arabs or Russians when you need them, eh?

Things got worse at the end of the 2007/08 season, as the Gills got relegated to where they are now, the Coca Cola League Two. A bad result on and off the pitch, as relegation to the basement of professional football in England also meant debt reached a whopping £13m. A huge amount for a lower league club.

However, things look on the up as Gillingham begin the ascend back to where they rightfully belong. As of Jan. 9, 2009, Gillingham are 10th in League Two, just four points off the play-off places. Five days ago they lost 2-1 at home to Aston Villa FC in the third round of the FA Cup, a game shown live on ITV1.

As a result of this game and success this season, Gillingham’s debt has decreased dramatically, and in the past financial year, the Gills announced they had made a profit, the first time in several years a Gillingham fan has ever heard that.

The Gills have had good times in the past, and have seen some of their employees develop and move on to bigger and better things. They have also had several bad times, leading almost to the point of liquidation.

As with the global economic market the world has recently entered a bad phase, the opposite could well be about to happen to the world of Gillingham FC, as after going to the lowest of the low, the only place for the ‘Pride of Kent’ now, is up.