Gillingham Football Club History
2006-07 Season
16th in League One
League Cup: 1st round; Millwall a. 1-2
FA Cup: 2nd round; Bristol City a. 3-4
JP Trophy: 1st round; Nottingham Forest h. 1-2
Highlight:
3-1 win over Swansea City, 16/9/06
Low Spot:
5-0 drubbing at Carlisle United, 24/3/07
Good:
Andrew Crofts
This all action Welsh midfielder added more quality to his energy and was rewarded with 8 goals. A growing influence at Priestfield.
Matthew Jarvis
This quick, tricky winger continues to develop and certainly caught the eye of his fellow pros, being voted into the PFA League One team of the year.
In Brief:
Having beaten Huddersfield on the opening day the Gills could only take 1 point from the next 5 games. Three straight wins followed but the club was unable to find consistency at any stage of the season.
There would be no consolation in the cups either.
All in all a very disappointing season for a club that would expect to do better at this level.
Gillingham Football Club was formed in 1893 with the creation of the New Brompton Excelsior club which bought the land on which the present Priestfield Stadium stands.
The club were regular participants in the early rounds of the FA Cup before gaining league status in 1920 when they became original members of Division Three.
By that time the club had changed its' name to Gillingham FC, the switch taking place in 1913.
The Gills were perpetual strugglers between the wars and actually lost their league status in 1938 when they failed in their bid for re-election.
Gillingham remained a force in non league football, however, and regained league status in 1950.
Life in the league still proved a struggle and it was not until 1964 that the club won its' first promotion, finishing as champions of the fourth division.
From 1974 Gillingham spent 15 seasons in the third division before once again falling into the basement.
The situation at the Priestfield degenerated still further and in 1993 it needed a last day victory, 2-0 over Halifax Town, to preserve their league status.
Then two years later the club was on the verge of extinction after falling into administration, being saved at the last minute by the intervention of current chairman Paul Scally, a man who has apparently met Football England pub chatter Norbert and lived to tell the tale.
From near the abyss the turnaround in fortunes was swift.
In 1996 the club climbed out of the bottom division as runners up behind Preston North End.
Under Tony Pulis the Gills pressed on and after flirting around the edges of promotion they made it to the second tier of English football in 2000 after defeating Wigan Athletic in a play off final.
This made up for the heartbreak of losing the previous years' final to Manchester City after leading 2-0 with only one minute of normal time remaining.
Gillingham were unable to establish themselves at the next level, however, and suffered relegation to League One last season after managing only a draw on the final day of the season at already relegated Nottingham Forest.
The Gills have a truly awful League Cup record, having never progressed beyond the fourth round.
Gillingham made it to the 5th round of the FA Cup for the first time in 1970 before losing narrowly to Watford.
They bettered this in 2000 when they made it through to the 6th round before taking a 5-0 pounding at Chelsea.
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