ON THIS DAY...

Richard Day reviews this day in the club's history

News relevant to Gillingham FC on this day in history, games, players, debuts etc...

FIXTURES…


1903 - New Brompton 4-0 Brentford     SLD1
Goals from George Smith, Alf Milward, Bill Raisbeck and Charlie Satterthwaite stung the Bees

1914 - Exeter City 2-0 Gillingham          SLD1

1920 - Millwall 1-0 Gillingham                SLD1

1925 - Gillingham 2-0 Aberdare Ath      D3S
Frank Marshall and Fred Brown were the scorers against the Welsh side

1931 - Clapton Orient 0-2 Gillingham    D3S   Att: 5,193
Bill White and George Pateman were on target in East London

1953 - Gillingham 1-1 Colchester Utd  D3S   Att: 11,299
A Trevor Long effort ensured a point

1959 - Crewe Alex 0-2 Gillingham         D4    Att: 5,255
Bill Patrick and John Edgar, a penalty, helped the Gills to victory at Gresty Road

1976 - Gillingham 3-1 Millwall                D3   Att: 9,111
Dave Wiltshire, Dave Shipperley and Danny Westwood all scored to dent the Lions pride

1978 - Gillingham 1-0 Chester               D3   Att: 7,863
Graham Knight got the match-winner

1979 - Chester 1-1 Gillingham               D3   Att: 2,617
Micky Barker struck to earn a point at Sealand Road

1981 - Oxford Utd 1-1 Gillingham         D3   Att: 3,877
A point was gained at the Manor Ground thanks to Trevor Lee

1987 - Brentford 3-2 Gillingham             D3   Att: 4,015
Goals from Tony Cascarino and Colin Gordon weren't enough in West London

1995 - Darlington 2-0 Gillingham           D3   Att: 1,548

1998 - Gillingham 1-0 Carlisle Utd         D2   Att: 6,250
Steve Butler netted the only goal of the game

2004 - Gillingham 0-1 Reading               C     Att: 8,600
A John Hills penalty miss proved costly as Shaun Goater won it for the Royals

2009 - Gillingham 3-1 Macclesfield T   L2   Att: 4,620
Simon King gave the Gills an early lead before Andy Barcham added a double late on

2012 – Gillingham 0-0 Rotherham Utd  L2   Att: 3,248
Neither keeper, Paulo Gazzaniga or Rhys Taylor, could be beaten in this stalemate at Priestfield

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DEBUTS...

2012 - Ollie Lee against Rotherham at home

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BIRTHS...

1898 - Jock Robertson

Following his demobilisation from the Army, Jock joined the Gills in November 1919 having previously played for local side Chatham Centrals but had to wait five months for his debut which eventually came away at Southend United.in April.
 
Following the formation of the Third Division of the Football League that summer which took the Southern League Division One in its entirety, it meant the Chatham-born defender played in the clubs first ever Football League fixture at home to Southampton in August 1920.

He was to remain at the club for a remarkable 13 seasons, racking up 395 appearances netting just one goal. That came in April 1928  when unfortunately just 683 people were there to witness his penalty in a 3-1 defeat at Merthyr Town.

On October 14 1931 the Gills were beaten 2-1 by top flight Portsmouth in a Testimonial game for the long-serving Gillingham defender.

His final first-team game for the club was at Watford in October 1932 but he continued playing as captain of the reserves while also coaching the younger players but he finally departed Priestfield Stadium in the summer of 1933 when he joined Canterbury Waverley.


1939 - Peter Stringfellow

Peter had played for hometown club Walkden Town, Oldham Athletic and GKN Sankey before being posted to Malaya with the RAF.

Following his demob he joined the Gills in December 1962 but had to wait until Newport County visited Priestfield in April 1963 before making his debut.

The 1963-64 campaign saw the Gills win the Division Four title and Peter played 28 games taking his overall tally to 38 appearances.

In August 1964 he joined Chesterfield in an exchange deal that saw Charlie Rackstraw coming to Gillingham.

Four months into his contract at Saltergate he was driving when an accident killed team-mate Ralph Hunt, the brother of Gills stalwart Dennis, and injured two others. Despite being absolved of all blame his form suffered as a result and he left the club the following summer and is believed to have  emigrated to Australia.