For a club that only sits 30 miles from MEMS Priestfield Stadium by road, it is rather hard to believe that Gillingham and Bromley have not met in a competitive league fixture for nearly 130 years!
Gills have often played Bromley in pre-season friendlies, we have met in the Kent Senior Cup and more recently in the FA Cup, but you have to go back to 1895 for the last time a league game took place between the teams.
That took place in March 1895 at Hayes Lane (Southern League, Division Two), with Bromley defeated by the Gills (then New Brompton) 3-2 in front of a reported 2000 supporters.
The reverse fixture, which was played just two weeks prior at Priestfield, resulted in a win for Bromley - they sealed a 3-1 victory.
The clubs didn’t cross paths for nearly 50 years, meeting next in a fourth round Kent Senior Cup tie in February 1945. Gills were victorious on that occasion (winning 3-1), but lost in the Final via a replay five years later with the first leg having ended 1-1 at Maidstone.
Bromley won the second game at Priestfield nine days later, defeating Gills 5-3.
Although the vast majority of supporters will not be able to recall that particular encounter, you are likely to remember the FA Cup first round tie which took place at ME7 in November 2006.
Bromley, who were at that time plying their trade in the Isthmian Premier Division, had pulled a goal back to make the score 2-1 at Priestfield, with Mark Bentley having already netted a brace to put the hosts ahead.
However, any chance of an upset were quashed fairly quickly, with Guylain N’dumbu N’sungu coming off the bench to score two of his own to book a place in round two.
Gills lost to Bristol City at the next stage.
The Ravens went on to win promotion to the Conference South at the end of that same season via the play-offs, beating Billericay Town in the Final having done well to overcome AFC Wimbledon at the semi-final stage.
They won the Conference South division in 2014-15 and finally clinched promotion to the EFL earlier this year, defeating Solihull Moors in a dramatic penalty shootout at Wembley Stadium.
Ironically they met Solihull on Sunday in the FA Cup, winning 2-1 away from home.
Wednesday’s fixture saw Gills sell out their allocation of 515 tickets last week, with the capacity at Hayes Lane being approximately 5000. With Bromley’s game at Solihull moved to Sunday for TV purposes, that ensured our fixture was pushed back by 24 hours.
The fixture will be available to stream via Sky Sports +. Overseas supporters can also purchase a £10 match pass. Audio passes are available for domestic viewers, coming at a cost of £2.50.
Commentary comes from the team at BBC Radio Kent.
