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...

2012 - USA international Robbie Findley is signed on loan from Championship Nottingham Forest

FIXTURES...

1895 - New Brompton 3-0 Reading              SL
Thomas, Albert Lister and Harry Buckland were the scorers in this convincing win

1901 - New Brompton 0-0 West Ham Utd  SL

1907 - Tottenham H 2-1 New Brompton     SL
John Pickering was the scorer in North London

1912 - Brentford 0-1 Gillingham                   SL
Albert Court scored the only goal in West London

1921 - Gillingham 3-2 Arsenal
Tommy Hall scored twice and Wally Battiste added the other in a testimonial game to mark William Ironside Groombridge's 25 years at club

1929 - Norwich City 2-0 Gillingham          D3S   Att: 9,981

1935 - Gillingham 3-0 Cardiff City             D3S  Att: 5,663
William Duncan, William Baldwin and Fred Fisher all scored in this emphatic win

1936 - Millwall 3-0 Gillingham                   D3S   Att: 6,580

1946 - Worcester City 1-6 Gillingham    SL
Hat-tricks from Stan Trumper and Hughie Russell saw the Gills to a resounding away win

1949 - Chelmsford City 1-1 Gillingham  SL         Att: 6,500
John Warsap was on target in Essex

1955 - Gillingham 2-1 Exeter City            D3S     Att: 8,266
Willie Millar and Ernie Morgan were on target to beat the Grecians

1957 - Gillingham 1-0 Plymouth Arg.      D3S     Att: 9,560
The only goal of the game came from Joe Hutton

1960 - Gillingham 3-2 York City               D4        Att: 5081
The Gills won by the odd goal in five thanks to goals from John Shepherd, Pat Terry and Gordon Brown

1963 - Gillingham 2-1 Darlington            D4       Att: 8,269
Brian Gibbs and Ron Newman scored to send the Quakers on the long journey home pointless

1966 - Gillingham 1-1 Arsenal              LC2R   Att: 20,566
A Charlie Rackstraw penalty shocked the Gunners in the replay here at Priestfield

1974 - Plymouth Arg. 1-1 Gillingham  D3       Att: 5,556
A spot-kick from Keith Lindsey earned a point at Home Park

1981 - Brentford 0-1 Gillingham          D3       Att: 5,425
Dick Tydeman got the winner at Griffin Park

1985 - Bury 1-2 Gillingham                   D3      Att: 2,802
Goals from Dave Mehmet and Terry Cochrane saw the Gills to victory at Gigg Lane

1991 - Gillingham 3-3 Barnet               D4     Att: 4,858
Tony Eeles and David Crown (2) were on target but the Bee's still got a point

1996 - Gillingham 3-1 Rotherham Utd  D2  Att: 4,852
Iffy Onuora scored a hat-trick against the Millers

1999 - Bolton W 2-0 Gillingham    WC2-1L Att: 3,673

2002 - Gillingham 1-1 Sheffield Utd    D1   Att: 7,497
Paul Shaw got the Gills goal which blunted the Blades

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DEBUTS...

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

1935 - Fred Fisher versus Cardiff C

1955 - Tom Crombie in the home game with Exeter

1963 - Ron Newman at Priestfield against Darlington

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BIRTHS...

1955 - David Tong
The Blackpool-born midfielder came through the ranks at his home-town club and had played for Shrewsbury Town, Cardiff City and Bristol City before Keith Peacock brought him to Gillingham in March 1986.

He made his debut against Reading and made five consecutive appearances in the team.
David later played in Europe with Merthyr Tydfil and managed Fleetwood Town. 


1970 - Matt Bryant
The Bristol-born defender graduated from schoolboy through to first-teamer at Ashton Gate before Tony Pulis paid £65,000 for his services in August 1996. Ironically he made his debut against his former club on the opening day of the season.

His time at Priestfield was interupted by injury but he made a total of 123 appearances for the Gills before being forced to retire through injury in January 2001.


1982 - Rowan Vine
The former £2.5m striker joined the Gills on loan from QPR in March 2012.

He made his debut as a 78th minute substitute for Jo Kuffour at Bradford City and went on to score one goal in nine appearances for the club. 

In the summer of 2012 he signed for Scottish Premier League St. Johnstone.


1988 - Darren Dennehy
The Republic of Ireland Under-21 international joined the Gills on loan from Cardiff City in January 2010.

Darren, a central defender made his debut against Colchester United and went on to make 19 appearances on total.

Following Mark Stimson's dismissal, the former Everton youngster followed him to Barnet but just six games into his career at Underhill he suffered a serious injury which kept him out of action until earlier this season.