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...

NEWS…


1952 - A club record fee of £3,500 saw Archie Clark sign forward Jimmy Scarth from Tottenham Hotspur

FIXTURES…

1902 - Brentford 3-2 New Brompton  SLD1
Thomas Leigh and Jack Frettingham were on the mark at Griffin Park

1908 - Watford 1-1 New Brompton    SLD1
A goal from H Salter helped claim a point from the Hornets

1913 - Gillingham 2-0 Portsmouth      SLD1
John Taylor nabbed both against Pompey

1930 - Swindon T 3-0 Gillingham         D3S     Att: 3,070

1933 - Gillingham 1-1 Luton Town       D3S    Att: 2,152
A George Nicol effort earned a point with the Hatters

1939 - Bristol R Res 1-4 Gillingham      SLD1
Harry Rowley, T McGee, Reg Day and W Johnson all found the net here

1947 - Exeter C Res 0-6 Gillingham      SLD1
An emphatic away win came thanks to doubles from Tug Wilson, Jackie Briggs and Hughie Russell

1950 - Gillingham 4-0 Portsmouth       Fr        Att: 11,900
Bill Burtenshaw grabbed himself a hat-trick and Harold Williams hit the other in a money raising game for the Truculent Disaster Fund *

* - HMS Truculent was a submarine that was accidentally sunk as it returned to Sheerness following a refit at Chatham on the night of January 12 1950. 64 naval and dockyard personnel lost their lives following the collision with Swedish tanker SS Divina in the Thames Estuary



1958 - Gillingham 3-2 Brentford           D3S     Att: 6,626
A hat-trick from Ron Saunders edged out the Bees

1964 - Gillingham 1-1 Doncaster R       D4       Att: 7,681
Brian Gibbs netted to earn a point

1975 - Gillingham 3-1 Swindon T          D3      Att: 9,172
Allan Gauden, Damien Richardson and Dave Chadwick all scored against the Robins

1977 - Chester 1-0 Gillingham               D3     Att: 4,293

1986 - Gillingham 1-0 Bury                     D3    Att: 4,212
Mark Weatherly shook the Shakers with the only goal

1991 - Gillingham 1-0 Halifax T             D4   Att: 2,829
The match-winner here was David Crown

1992 - Walsall 0-1 Gillingham                D4   Att: 2,987
Irish winger Mark Dempsey, struck  the only goal of the game at the Bescot Stadium

1997 - Gillingham 2-1 Peterborough U  D2   Att: 6,550
Iffy Onuora hit both against the Posh

2003 - Portsmouth 1-0 Gillingham         C    Att: 19,521

2005 - Gillingham 0-1 West Ham Utd    C    Att: 9510
A 13th minute goal from Marlon Harewood divided the sides.

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BIRTHS...

1937 - Chic Brodie

Chic was a goalkeeper who certainly had an eventful career in both the Football League and non-league.

He began his career with Scottish junior side Partick Avondale before signing for Manchester City in 1953, initially as an amateur, where he was understudy to Bert Trautman. He spent four years at Maine Road but failed to break into the first team and in 1957 left to join the Gills where he made his debut in a defeat at Port Vale and in his one season with the club, played 22 times in all competitions.

With John Simpson being the club's first-choice keeper, Brodie moved on to Aldershot where he was doing his National Service and later played for Wolverhampton Wanderers and Northampton Town before a £10,000 deal took him to Brentford in November 1963. He remained with the club for ten years, twice being named Supporters Player of the Year and making a total of 224 appearances

In August 1970 while playing for Brentford in a Division Four game at Lincoln City he had the misfortune of whole goal collapsing on him. Then just three months later his professional career came to an abrupt end when he was seriously injured after colliding with a dog which had run onto the field of play in a game against Colchester United at Layer Road, the incident captured by the ITV Big Match cameras.

Brodie had a love-hate affair with the FA Cup. While at Gillingham he played in the then record-breaking 10-1 F.A Cup victory over Eastern Counties side Gorleston but later while playing for non-league Margate he just happened to be between the sticks in two of their big ties.

In the first, Bournemouth won 11-0 at Dean Court in a First Round tie in November 1971 when Ted MacDougall scored nine of the goals while ex-Gill Mel Machin got one of the other two. Then in January 1973 Spurs won 6-0 in an Third Round game at Hartsdown Park .

He later played for Wealdstone and Maidstone United before retiring from playing and became a taxi driver.


1977 - Paul Wilson

The Maidstone-born forward joined the Gills as a trainee in July 1993 and turned professional in April 1995.

By that time he had already made his two substitute appearances for the first-team, making his debut at Scunthorpe United in August 1994 when replacing Lee Palmer.

Shortly after the arrival of new manager Tony Pulis, Paul moved on to Gravesend & Northfleet in September 1995 and went on to play for a number of other Kent clubs