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Gillingham are currently riding as high as they have ever done and it is difficult to believe that six years ago they were in the 3rd Division. They won promotion In 1995/96 along with Preston and Stan Ternent's Bury and then four years later went up again via the play offs alongside Preston and Stan Ternent's Burnley.
The first promotion was with Tony Pulis as manager and he got them to the Division Two play offs in 1998/99. In fact they were 2-0 up in the Wembley final against Manchester City with the clock ticking away before conceding two late goals. It is somewhat difficult to believe that Pulis was then sacked by chairman wide-boy Paul Scally and in as his replacement came the coach who has become a legend in his own mind, Peter Taylor.
Under Taylor they went one better and this time won the play off final in extra time against John Benson's Wigan. Thankfully for Gillingham the Legend upped sticks and moved to Leicester. He had won promotion with the team Pulis had built and he took Martin O'Neill's Leicester to the top before starting to tinker with it. Watch out Brighton.
Gillingham looked no further than their current staff for a new boss and appointed Andy Hessenthaler as the new boss, someone who has often been a thorn in our side. Having just been involved in the promotion Hessenthaler took over with the club odds on favourites to go down. They had very little hope of keeping out of the bottom three said the tipsters but in the end they finished in 13th place and were comfortably well above the relegated clubs.
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When we arrived at the Priestfield Stadium back in October we were fourth and Gillingham were 20th just as I had predicted. The 2-2 draw that night, played against the backdrop of the death of Tim Ellis, saw us drop one place and Gillingham stay where they were.
During November they sank even lower, to 21st, but at no point did they drop into the bottom three. Then a 3-0 victory over Crystal Palace at home on 21st November lifted them to 17th and they have never looked back since. In fact not only are they still above the relegation positions they now find themselves in the top half of the division in 12th place.
Since the draw between us down at Gillingham they have played a further 28 league games and of these they have won 12, drawn 6 and lost 8. They have won more league games than the Clarets during this period and that after we went on to win seven out of the next eight.
Eight of those wins have come at home and four of them on the road. One of the away wins was a 2-0 win at Stockport but the other three have all come against play off contenders. They won 2-1 at both Millwall and Coventry and 2-0 at Preston. They have though picked up just two points in their last five away games and these have come at struggling Sheffield Wednesday and Walsall. There have been defeats though at Rotherham 3-2, Wolves 2-0 and Norwich 2-1.
During this recent period of poor away results they have won all four home games and the last home points they dropped were in a 4-0 beating against Bradford back in February. Those wins have been against Grimsby 2-1, Nottingham Forest 3-1 and both Millwall and Crewe 1-0.
That 1-0 win at home to Crewe was Gillingham's last game on Easter Monday and was won with a penalty right on half time from Marlon King. With just eighteen minutes to go they conceded a penalty themselves but Crewe's Shaun Smith missed it and Gillingham went on to record a deserved win against a poor Crewe side.
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It was no surprise that Marlon King scored the goal, this was his 17th league goal of the season and none of the other Gillingham players are near him. Next highest is Iffy Onuora with nine and Guy Ipoua with eight.
Full list of Gillingham's results this season
Andy Hessenthaler is not the busiest of managers in the transfer market for the simple reason that he isn't blessed with a lot of money to spend. Since our meeting in October there have been no transfers in or out although two players they had at the time on loan, Robert Taylor and Lloyd Samuel from Wolves and Villa respectively, are no longer with them. Taylor in fact is now with Grimsby and will be up against the Clarets next week. Sadly there has to be further mention of him later.
One player who will be lining up against a former club is Paul Shaw who was with the Clarets on loan from Arsenal in 1995. He scored four goals in nine appearances but there was never an offer made to bring him to Turf Moor on a permanent basis.
Looking at other players who have played for both clubs two right wingers come to mind in Terry Cochrane and Phil Cavener. Cochrane, the Northern Ireland international, played for the Clarets from 1976 to 1978 before moving to Middlesbrough in a big money transfer. He later played for the Gills for whom he made over 100 league appearances.
Phil Cavener made his debut for the Clarets in 1978 in a home defeat against Orient. He had great potential but it was never realised and he was released by Frank Casper in 1983 after making 59 league appearances. After a short spell at Bradford City he moved to Gillingham in October of the same year but made just ten appearances for them.
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The last four encounters have brought two draws and two defeats for the Clarets and the defeats will be well remembered. We lost 3-0 in 1999/2000 with just five games left in the season. That looked to have ended any hope of making the top two but the remaining four games were all won and we finally pipped the Gills on the last day of the season by winning at Scunthorpe. Their 1-0 defeat at Wrexham was the result of a Mark McGregor goal.
The previous season was the well publicised 5-0 defeat with Robert Taylor scoring all five. It was the night that Stan sent out all the players back out at half time. The likelihood is that three years on not one of the players who started that night is expected to be in the starting line up this week. The team was: Paul Crichton, Ally Pickering, Gordon Armstrong, Micky Mellon, Neil Moore (Glen Little), Brian Reid, Chris Brass (Ronnie Jepson), Andy Payton, Andy Cooke, Lenny Johnrose, Graham Branch.
There have been wins though and two very good ones in the two games previous to the last four. In the 4th Division promotion season we beat them 4-1 with a Micky Conroy hat-trick and a first Burnley goal for Adrian Randall. It was a day of some eccentric goalkeeping from the Gills' number one Harvey Lim.
On their next visit they saw Iffy Onuora sent off late in the game but not until the Clarets had this time recorded a 5-1 win. Andy Cooke and Paul Barnes both scored twice with Paul Smith scoring the second goal.
League results in the last 20 years
Season | Div | Ven | Result | Att | Scorers |
1983/84 | 3 | h | 2-3 | 5,590 | Hamilton Dobson |
a | 1-0 | 4,319 | Biggins | ||
1984/85 | 3 | h | 0-1 | 3,595 | |
a | 1-1 | 5,935 | Biggins | ||
1989/90 | 4 | h | 1-2 | 7,274 | Walker(og) |
a | 0-0 | 3,853 | |||
1990/91 | 4 | h | 2-2 | 6,459 | Futcher(pen) Davis |
a | 2-3 | 3,679 | Futcher(pen) Deary | ||
1991/92 | 4 | h | 4-1 | 8,908 | Conroy(3) Randall |
a | 0-3 | 3,729 | |||
1996/97 | 2 | h | 5-1 | 10,004 | Cooke(2) Smith Barnes(2 1pen) |
a | 0-1 | 6,116 | |||
1997/98 | 2 | h | 0-0 | 11,811 | |
a | 0-2 | 5,886 | |||
1998/99 | 2 | h | 0-5 | 8,981 | |
a | 1-2 | 5,702 | Payton | ||
1999/2000 | 2 | h | 0-3 | 17,026 | |
a | 2-2 | 7,347 | Payton Wright | ||
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) |
Last Time in the League
Burnley 1 (Ashby 70og) Gillingham 1 (Asaba 66) - Nationwide League Division 1, Monday 28th August 2000
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Gillingham weren't expected to be anything but one of the poorer teams in the division and everything was nicely set up. It was Gillingham though and they had just won on their last two visits.
They should have made it three because without any doubt they were the better side as the Clarets just couldn't get going. We were playing with a front pair of Andy Cooke and Phil Gray and that was a partnership that was never going to succeed. Both were soon to lose their places.
It was 0-0 at half time and everyone was thankful for that as passes continually went astray and Gillingham seemed to overrun us. Surely there would be changes at half time and Stan would start the second half with a substitution.
In fact the answer was no but with just seven minutes of the second half gone he did, not one, not two but three substitutions all at once. It didn't improve anything and the only saving grace seemed to be that Gillingham didn't really look like scoring.
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It took us just four minutes to equalise and it came from a right wing cross from Glen Little. Blakey was our best player on the day and our only likely source of a goal. Even he couldn't have expected to see his cross hit in by Gillingham defender Barry Ashby for an own goal.
Man of the match though was undoubtedly the Gillingham player boss Andy Hessenthaler. Thankfully he will only be on the touchline this time round.
The teams were,
Burnley: Paul Crichton, Paul Weller (John Mullin 52), Mitchell Thomas, Steve Davis, Ian Cox, Lee Briscoe, Glen Little, Kevin Ball, Paul Cook, Andy Cooke (Graham Branch 52), Phil Gray (Andy Payton 52). Subs not used: Gordon Armstrong, Micky Mellon.
Gillingham: Vince Bartram, Barry Ashby, Guy Butters, Roland Edge (Nyron Nosworthy 46), Chris Hope, Mark Patterson, Ty Gooden, Andy Hessenthaler, Nicky Southall, Carl Asaba (Marlon King 85), Junior Lewis. Subs not used: Charlie Mitten, Matthew Bryant and Kevin James.