It's Stan Ternent's Blue and White Army

Last updated : 08 April 2005 By Tony Scholes
Nyron Nosworthy
That was back on 7th December last year and at the time I wrote, “The 9th April 2005 is a date that everyone will be looking forward to that little bit more following the news from the Priestfield Stadium this morning.”

At the time Gillingham were next to bottom and were four points away from climbing out of the bottom three, today they sit one place above the relegation positions and Stan is, for the second year in succession, right in the middle of a relegation scrap.

The change in fortunes though has been somewhat more dramatic than the league table would suggest, having taken over a side that was struggling to win a raffle he has transformed it and had the league table started again at that point then the Gills would be as high as tenth.

It’s all been based on home form and they have lost just once in nine home games and that was against West Ham in February. Stan always said a side would be improving when it started winning away from home and that’s happened just once too – at bottom club Rotherham.

But we are not playing them on the Turf, I’m not so sure we would want to go through another afternoon as we had last August, we are playing them at Priestfield where and since that date back in December only Sunderland, Preston and Ipswich have faired better.

It’s been inspirational stuff and it’s had a profound effect on Stan’s assistant Ronnie Jepson who has said that he believes Gillingham could get three points, one point or no points tomorrow. He shouldn’t be wasting his time in that job with such credentials.

Jepson also talks of us now bearing the fruits of Stan’s time at Burnley and also of our two FA Cup quarter finals during his time here. I would be interested to know when the second one was Ronnie.

There have been changes and Hessenthaler, appointed as a player/director on his resignation as manager, has been shipped out to Hull on loan whilst player/coach Iwan Roberts was banished to Cambridge after a disagreement with the management team.

Transfer activity in has been minimal and the only permanent signing has been Michael Flynn from Wigan whilst more recently our neighbours down the M65 loaned them two players – Jay McEveley and Jonathan Douglas.

We know all about McEveley, he was with us for a short time last season. They would both have been available in any case this weekend but their loans have now been extended until the end of the season.

Gillingham are back home after picking up two excellent points away from home at Preston and QPR, for some reason the Gillingham received some stick from the Deepdale crowd with reference to Dingles but he just blew them some kisses in return.

If they stay up much will surely depend on their remaining home games, and that gives us an opportunity to have some say in it. On a personal note, I hope at least one of Gillingham, Plymouth and Brighton go down for no other reason than the travelling time.

Click HERE to see all Gillingham’s results this season.

Team News

Mark Saunders is the only player definitely ruled and there is good news for Gillingham with Barry Ashby back after four weeks out injured.

It does look as though Ternent will stick with the side that drew at QPR with Ashby possibly winning a place on the bench.

If that’s the case then they will line up:

Jason Brown, Nyron Nosworthy, Chris Hope, Ian Cox, Jay McEveley, Nicky Southall, Paul Smith, Jonathan Douglas, Michael Flynn, Darius Henderson, Mamady Sidibe. Subs from: Steve Banks, Andrew Crofts, Matthew Jarvis, John Hills, Barry Ashby, Darren Byfield.

Click HERE to see Gillingham’s full squad.

One thing that Steve Cotterill won’t do is play Graham Branch at centre half in front of the Gillingham manager but he will be making a change in goal. Having decided to swap his keepers over for the remainder of the season it will be Brian Jensen in goal.

Jensen, alongside Camara and Branch, is likely to be one of three Ternent signings in a Burnley side that is otherwise expected to be unchanged from the side that played in each of the last two home games, provided Frank Sinclair recovers from his calf injury.

If Frank is ruled out then Michael Duff will almost certainly step in at right back in a Burnley side that will be:

Brian Jensen, Frank Sinclair (or Michael Duff), Gary Cahill, John McGreal, Mo Camara, John Oster, Micah Hyde, James O’Connor, Graham Branch, Ade Akinbiyi, Dean Bowditch. Subs: Danny Coyne, Lee Roche, Michael Duff (or Joel Pilkington), Tony Grant, Jean-Louis Valois.

Last Time

The 2002/03 season started with four defeats and when we arrived at Priestfield Stadium last season we had already kicked off with three, knowing that it had been twenty years since the last win at Gillingham.

Gillingham had started the season well but there was no way back for them once Ian Moore had robbed Chris Hope of the ball down the left hand side to come in and score from an acute angle.

Two minutes later and we doubled the lead when Dean West hit home after excellent work from Robbie Blake and Luke Chadwick led to him getting on the end of a Chadwick cross.

Robbie Blake added a third in the second half and the season was finally underway with the first win and the first points.

The teams were,

Gillingham: Jason Brown, Ian Cox, Barry Ashby, Chris Hope, Nicky Southall, Danny Spiller, David Perpetuini, Paul Shaw, John Hills, Tommy Johnson (Mamady Sidibe 66), Nyron Nosworthy (Marlon King 45). Subs not used: Vince Bartram, Leon Johnson, Richard Rose.

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Dean West, David May, Graham Branch, Mo Camara, Glen Little, Paul Weller, Tony Grant, Luke Chadwick (Richard Chaplow 78), Robbie Blake, Ian Moore (Alan Moore 66). Subs not used: Arthur Gnohere, Matt O’Neill, Paul Scott.

Previous 20 Seasons

Season

Div

Ven

Result

Att

Scorers

1984/85

3

h

0-1

3,595

.

..

a

1-1

5,935

Biggins

1989/90

4

a

0-0

3,893

.

..

h

1-2

7,272

Walker(og)

1990/91

4

a

2-3

3,679

Futcher(pen) Deary

.

.

h

2-2

6,459

Futcher(Pen) SP Davis

1991/92

4

h

4-1

8,908

Conroy(3) Randall

..

a

0-3

3,729

.

1996/97

2

a

0-1

6,116

.

..

h

5-1

10,004

Cooke(2) Smith Barnes(2 1pen)

1997/98

2

h

0-0

11,811

.

..

a

0-2

5,886

.

1998/99

2

a

1-2

5,702

Payton

..

h

0-5

8,981

.

1999/2000

2

a

2-2

7,347

Payton Wright

..

h

0-3

17,026

.

2000/01

1

h

1-1

15,611

Ashby(og)

..

a

0-0

9,331

.

2001/02

1

a

2-2

8,067

Taylor Little(pen)l

..

h

2-0

16,236

Ball Johnson

2002/03

1

a

2-4

7,905

Taylor Blake(pen)

..

h

2-0

14,031

Taylor Diallo

2003/04

1

a

3-0

7,645

I Moore West Blake

.

FAC

h

3-1

9,735

I Moore Blake(2)

.

1

h

1-0

10,400

Little

2004/05

C

h

1-2

11,574

Moore

Click HERE to see more results against Gillingham from the first meeting which was as recent as 1980.