ON THIS DAY...

News relevant to the club on this day previously

Richard Day looks back at news relevant to Gillingham FC on this day in history, games, players, debuts etc...

NEWS…

1965 - Gills boss Freddie Cox walks out on the Gills to return to Bournemouth as manager

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FIXTURES...

1904 - Luton Town 1-0 New Brompton    SLD1

1910 - New Brompton 0-3 Southampton SLD1

1921 - Gillingham 3-1 St Albans City         FAC6Q
George Needham, Charlie Freeman and Fred Howard all netted as the Gills progressed

1927 - Torquay Utd 1-1 Gillingham            D3S   Att: 2,992
William Boswell scored to earn a point

1930 - Gillingham 2-2 Q.P.R                        D3S   Att: 2,204
Billy Death and Henry Loasby were both on target

1932 - Gillingham 4-0 Bournemouth        D3S   Att: 4,843
Two goals apiece from Roy Bethell and George Nicol eased the Gills to victory

1938 - Barry Town 1-3 Gillingham            SLD1
Tug Wilson, W Johnson and Harry Rowley all found the net in South Wales

1955 - Gillingham 1-2 Brentford              D3S   Att: 5,867
The Bees took the points despite an Ernie Morgan effort

1960 - Gillingham 3-0 Chester                 D4     Att: 4,902
Two goals from Gordon Pulley plus one from John Shepherd saw the Gills to a comfortable win

1966 - Gillingham 0-1 Scunthorpe Utd  D3     Att: 5,468

1976 - Tranmere R 2-0 Gillingham         D3    Att: 2,054

1977 - Gillingham 1-1 Peterborough U  FAC2   Att: 10,181
Terry Nicholl was on target against the Posh

1983 - Scunthorpe Utd 2-0 Gillingham  D3   Att: 2,127
Among the home players at the Old Show Ground that afternoon was England cricketing legend Ian Botham

1994 - Rochdale 2-1 Gillingham             D3   Att: 1,665
Adrian Foster got on the scoresheet at Spotland

2005 - Bournemouth 2-1 Gillingham     L1   Att: 6,177
Neil Harris put the Gills ahead but the Cherries struck back

2011 - Gillingham 4-1 Bristol R               L2   Att: 7,750
Lewis Montrose and Danny Jackman added to Danny Kedwell's double to secure an emphatic win

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DEBUTS...

The following players made their Gills debuts in the above games...

1930 - Bill White versus QPR at home

1955 - Arthur Hughes against Brentford at Priestfield

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BIRTHS…

1933 - Keith Dibden

Keith, a forward, came through the ranks from junior to professional at Southampton, signing pro terms with the Saints in January 1952 but failed to make a first-team appearance during his time at the Dell.

Archie Clark brought him to Gillingham in July 1957 but an ankle problem kept him out until December 28 when ironically Southampton were the visitors. His only other appearance came in a Third Round FA Cup tie at Nottingham Forest.

Having been a regular in the Kent League side he was released in the summer and moved to Hastings United.


1959 - Alan Walker

The experienced centre-half cost £50,000 from Millwall in March 1988 and made his debut in an away game at Notts County shortly afterwards.

He was a rock solid member of the Gills rearguard over the next four seasons, scoring 16 times in his 172 games for the club and was named supporters Player-of-the-Year for 1989-90 and made the Division Four PFA Team-of-the-Year in 1991-92.

After ending his professional playing career at Barnet, Alan continued playing at various clubs including Sittingbourne where he was player-manager. Since then he has held managerial posts at Fisher Athletic, Tonbridge Angels and Maidstone United.

Back in 2007 Alan suffered a freak accident while attending a UEFA 'A' Licence course with the Northern Ireland Football Association when while participating in a coaching session he headed a crossed ball which left him unconscious. He had suffered damage to his spinal cord resulting in a broken neck. 
 
'Walks' is the KCFA's Head of Coaching and it is this capacity that has seen him occasionally attending Gillingham home games.