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...

FIXTURES…

1902 - Watford 3-0 New Brompton           SLD1

1908 - New Brompton 1-2 Tottenham H  SLD1
A Steve Smith goal wasn't enough against Spurs

1913 - Gillingham 0-4 Brentford                SLD1

1930 - Fulham 2-1 Gillingham                     D3S   Att: 15,196
The Gills goal came from Scot Len Dowell

1936 - Gillingham 2-0 Reading                   D3S   Att: 7,454
Bill Baldwin and a Gregory own goal saw off the Biscuitmen

1947 - Hereford Utd 3-3 Gillingham          SLD1
Wally Akers, Tug Wilson and Jimmy Boswell all scored against the Bulls

1958 - Gillingham 0-2 Port Vale                D3S    Att: 7407

1964 - Gillingham 2-0 Hartlepool Utd    D4       Att: 7,536
A brace from Ron Newman helped the Gills overcome the North-East outfit

1975 - Wrexham 0-1 Gillingham           D3        Att: 3,691
Damien Richardson netted the winner at the Racecourse Ground

1986 - Gillingham 2-0 Lincoln City       D3        Att: 3,797
Terry Cochrane and Mark Weatherly were the scorers in this home win

1992 - Burnley 4-1 Gillingham              D4       Att: 8,908
The Gills were thumped at Turf Moor, Alan Walker scoring a consolation for the Gills.

1997 - Notts County 1-1 Gillingham   D2      Att: 5,008
A Dave Puttnam goal earned a point at Meadow Lane

2003 - Gillingham 3-2 Leicester C       C       Att: 8,609
Goals from Paul Shaw, Mamady Sidibe and a Matt Elliott own goal saw the Gills edge out the Foxes
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DEBUTS...

The following player made his Gillingham debut in the above games...

1997- Ade Akinbiyi at Notts County

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BIRTHS...

1958 - Mark Weatherly

Mark was a one-club man during his long playing career in the Football League with the versatile performer making 542 appearances for the Gills in various positions.

Born in Ramsgate, he played for Coventry City (schoolboy) and Canterbury City before signing apprentice forms for Gillingham, then under Len Ashurst, in July 1974.
 
In August 1974, aged 16 years and 218 days, he became the clubs youngest ever player, at that time, when making his league debut when replacing Brian Gregory as a substitute in a 2-0 defeat at Bournemouth.

He scored the first of his 55 goals for the club in the penultimate game of the 1974-75 campaign, against Grimsby Town at home, this game also saw him make his full debut.

He spent the summer of 1978 playing for Finnish side Koparit. He was there for two months scoring one goal in nine appearances.

At the start of the 1986-87 season he enjoyed a testimonial game against Spurs at Priestfield with a crowd of 4071 seeing David Shearer score in a 1-1 draw.

During the nineties he held varying management posts with Margate and ran the social club at Hartsdown Park for a number of years.

He had a spell as manager at Ramsgate where he is currently involved as the Head of Youth Development.
 

1974 - Steve Lomas

Having previously played for Manchester City, West Ham United and QPR, the experienced midfielder came to Gillingham in the twilight of his playing career in July 2007 under manager Ronnie Jepson.

Steve was sent-off on his Gills debut at Cheltenham Town and made just nine appearances before being released shortly after Mark Stimson's arrival as boss.

Since then the former Northern Ireland international has coached at Norwich City, been player manager at St Neots Town and reserve team boss at West Ham before being named the new manager of Scottish Premier League St Johnstone in November 2011.