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Gillingham Football Club is an English professional association football club based in Gillingham, Kent, playing in EFL League Two, the fourth level of the English football league system, as of the 2024–25 season. The club was formed in 1893 as New Brompton F.C., a name which was retained until 1913, and has played home matches at Priestfield Stadium throughout its history. The club joined the Football League in 1920, was voted out of the league in favour of Ipswich Town at the end of the 1937–38 season, but returned to the league 12 years later after it was expanded from 88 to 92 clubs. Between 2000 and 2005, Gillingham played in the second tier of the English league for the only time in the club's history, achieving a highest league finish of eleventh place in 2002–03.

The record for most games played for the club is held by Ron Hillyard, who made 655 appearances between 1974 and 1991. Brian Yeo is the club's record goalscorer, scoring 149 goals during his Gillingham career. Andrew Crofts holds the record for the most international caps gained as a Gillingham player, having made 12 appearances for Wales. The highest transfer fee ever paid by the club is the £600,000 paid to Reading for Carl Asaba in 1998, and the highest fee received is the £1,500,000 paid by Manchester City for Robert Taylor in 1999. The highest attendance recorded at Priestfield was 23,002 for the visit of Queens Park Rangers in 1948. The club holds one Football League record, having conceded the fewest goals in a 46-match season, when the team conceded only 20 goals during the 1995–96 season.

All figures are correct as of 2024.

Honours and achievements

Gillingham have won two major honours in English football; first the Football League Fourth Division title in the 1963–64 season and then the Football League Two title in the 2012–13 season. The club has also achieved promotion on four other occasions, most recently in the 2008–09 season, when a 1–0 victory over Shrewsbury Town in the 2009 Football League Two play-off final at Wembley Stadium secured a return to League One following relegation the previous season.

Gillingham's only previous victory at Wembley (at the original Wembley Stadium) came in the 1999–2000 season, when a 3–2 victory over Wigan Athletic in the Second Division play-off final clinched promotion to the second tier of English football for the first time in Gillingham's history. Between 1938 and 1950, when the club played outside the Football League, Gillingham won the Southern Football League championship on two occasions and the Kent League once.

The Football League

• Second Division (level 3):
  • Promotion (1): 1999–2000
• Third Division / Fourth Division / Football League Two (level 4):
  • Winners (2): 1963–64, 2012–13
  • Promotion (3): 1973–74, 1995–96, 2008–09

Other honours

• Southern League:
  • Division One champions (2): 1946–47, 1948–49
  • Division Two champions (1): 1894–95
  • Southern League Cup winners (1): 1946–47
• Kent League:
  • Champions (1): 1945–46
  • Kent League Cup winners (1): 1945–46

National cup competitions

• FA Cup:
  • Quarter finalists: 1999–2000
• League Cup:
  • Fourth round (round of 16): 1963–64, 1996–97 and 2022-23

Player records

Age

• Youngest first team player: Luke Freeman, 15 years 233 days (against Barnet, 10 November 2007).
• Oldest first team player: Glenn Morris, 40 years 353 days (against Salford City, 7 December 2024).
• Oldest first team debutant: John Gorman, 37 years 39 days (against Oxford United, 24 September 1986).

Appearances

All competitive peacetime first team matches are included. Statistics correct as of the end of the 2023–24 season. Appearances as substitute are in brackets. Players who played for the club prior to 1920 or between 1938 and 1950, when the club played in the Southern League and Kent League rather than the Football League, have appearances in those competitions included in their totals.

a. Includes Football League, Southern League and Kent League

b. Includes Football League Cup, Southern League Cup and Kent League Cup

Goalscorers

• Most goals in a season: Hughie Russell, 42 goals (including 33 Southern League goals) in the 1946–47 season.
• Most goals in a season during Football League membership: Brian Yeo, 32 goals (including 31 League goals) in the 1973–74 season.
• Most Football League goals in a season:
  • Brian Yeo, 31 goals in Division Four in the 1973–74 season.
  • Ernie Morgan, 31 goals in Division Three South in the 1954–55 season.
• Most goals in a Football League match: 6, Fred Cheesmur (against Merthyr Town, 26 April 1930).
• Most goals in any match: 9, Hughie Russell (against Gloucester City, Southern League, 9 November 1946).
• Fastest hat-trick: Jimmy Scarth, three goals in two minutes and 30 seconds (against Leyton Orient, 1 November 1952). At the time this was the fastest hat-trick in Football League history, a record which lasted until 2004.

Top goalscorers

All competitive first team matches are included. Appearances, including those as substitute, are in brackets. Players who played for the club prior to 1920 or between 1938 and 1950, when the club played in the Southern League and Kent League rather than the Football League, have goals in those competitions included in their totals.

a. Includes Football League, Southern League and Kent League

b. Includes Football League Cup, Southern League Cup and Kent League Cup

International caps

• First capped player: Damien Richardson for Republic of Ireland on 6 June 1973
• Most international caps while a Gillingham player: Andrew Crofts, 12 for Wales
• First Gillingham player to appear in the World Cup finals: Brent Sancho, for Trinidad and Tobago against Sweden on 10 June 2006

Transfer fees

Record transfer fees paid

Record transfer fees received

Some media sources claimed that the transfer fee paid by Southampton for Paulo Gazzaniga in 2012 was higher than that paid for Taylor, but the fee was not officially disclosed by either club.

Managerial records

See also: List of Gillingham F.C. managers

• First manager: William Ironside Groombridge (appointed secretary-manager in 1896)
• Longest serving manager: Archie Clark, managed the club from 1939 until 1957

Club records

Goals

• Most Football League goals scored in a season: 90 in 46 matches, Division Four, 1973–74.
• Fewest Football League goals scored in a season: 34 in 42 matches, Division Three, 1920–21.
• Most Football League goals conceded in a season: 101 in 46 matches, Division Three South, 1950–51.
• Fewest Football League goals conceded in a season: 20 in 46 matches, Division Three, 1995–96, a league record for a 46-game season.
• Most league goals scored in a season at any level: 111 in 20 matches, Kent League, 1945–46.
• Fewest league goals scored in a season at any level: 20 in 34 matches, Southern League Division One, 1905–06.

Points

• Most points in a Football League season:
  • Two points for a win: 62 in 46 games, Division Four, 1973–74.
  • Three points for a win: 85 in 46 games, Division Two, 1999–2000.
• Fewest points in a Football League season:
  • Two points for a win: 26 in 44 games, Division Three South, 1937–38.
  • Three points for a win: 40 in 42 games, Division Three, 1992–93, and 40 in 46 games, Division Three, 1988–89.
• Most points in a season at any level:
  • Two points for a win: 64 in 44 games, Southern League, 1938–39.
• Fewest points in a season at any level:
  • Two points for a win: 19 in 28 games, Southern League Division One, 1900–01.

Matches

Firsts

• First match: New Brompton 1–5 Woolwich Arsenal reserves, friendly, 2 September 1893
• First FA Cup match: Ilford 6–3 New Brompton, first qualifying round, 14 October 1893
• First Southern League match: Sheppey United 0–6 New Brompton, Division Two, 15 September 1894
• First Football League match: Gillingham 1–1 Southampton, Division Three South, 28 August 1920
• First Football League Cup match: Gillingham 1–1 Preston North End, second round, 19 October 1960

Record wins

• Record Football League win: 10–0 against Chesterfield in Division Three, 5 September 1987.
• Record FA Cup win: 10–1 against Gorleston, first round, 16 November 1957.
• Record win in any competitive match: 12–1 against Gloucester City in the Southern League, 9 November 1946.

Record defeat

• Record Football League defeat: 0–8 against Luton Town in Division Three South, 13 April 1929
• Record FA Cup defeat: 3–9 against Sutton United, fourth qualifying round, 3 November 1945.

Attendances

• Highest home attendance: 23,002 against Queens Park Rangers, FA Cup third round, 10 January 1948.
• Highest Football League attendance: 20,128 against Millwall, Division Three South, 2 September 1950.

Notes

A. Promoted via the play-off system after finishing in third place

B. Promoted automatically by finishing in second place on both occasions

C. Promoted via the play-off system after finishing in fifth place

D. Cascarino is placed higher than Gibbs, and Morgan higher than Westwood, as they reached their goals totals in fewer matches.

E. The club has in the past claimed that goalkeeper Freddie Fox made his one appearance for England in 1925 while registered with Gillingham. It is possible that he was still with Gillingham when the team selection was announced, but he left the club to join Millwall nearly a month before the match actually took place.

F. This was the first match for the club's first team, but it was preceded by the first match for the club's reserve team, which occurred earlier on the same day.

References

General

• Brown, Tony (2003). The Definitive Gillingham F.C.: A Complete Record. Soccerdata. ISBN 1-899468-20-X.
• Elligate, David (2009). Gillingham FC On This Day. Durrington: Pitch Publishing. ISBN 978-1-9054-1145-0.
• Triggs, Roger (1984). Gillingham Football Club: A Chronology 1893–1984. Kent County Libraries.
• Triggs, Roger (2001). The Men Who Made Gillingham Football Club. Tempus Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0-7524-2243-X.

Specific

1. ^ Triggs (1984), p8
2. Triggs (1984), p9
3. Triggs (1984), p10
4. Triggs (1984), p13
5. Triggs (1984), p19
6. ^ "Gillingham". The Football Club History Database. Archived from the original on 9 May 2008. Retrieved 17 September 2008.
7. ^ Brown, p3
8. ^ "Gillingham 2–2 AFC Wimbledon". BBC Sport. 20 April 2013. Archived from the original on 16 October 2013. Retrieved 15 August 2013.
9. "Gillingham 1–0 Shrewsbury". BBC Sport. 23 May 2009. Archived from the original on 25 May 2009. Retrieved 23 May 2009.
10. "Second time lucky for Gills". BBC Sport. 28 May 2000. Archived from the original on 3 March 2003. Retrieved 6 August 2008.
11. Brown, pp55, 56, 58
12. Brown, p109
13. Brown, pp83, 105
14. ^ Brown, p56
15. Brown, p58
16. ^ "New Brompton". The Football Club History Database. Archived from the original on 16 May 2008. Retrieved 18 September 2008.
17. ^ Brown, p55
18. "Brentford stunned by League Two Gillingham". BBC Sport. 8 November 2022. Archived from the original on 8 January 2023. Retrieved 17 March 2024.
19. "Freeman Makes History". Gillingham F.C. 12 November 2007. Archived from the original on 19 December 2007. Retrieved 12 November 2007.
20. Panting, Matthew (13 August 2024). "Report: 10-man Gills knocked out of Carabao Cup". Kent Online. Retrieved 21 August 2024.
21. "Games played by Glenn Morris in 2024/2025". Soccebase. Retrieved 21 August 2024.
22. Bradley, Andy (19 September 1987). "Extra Time". Gillingham F.C. Official Matchday Magazine.
23. ^ Brown, pp122–129.
24. "Max Ehmer". Soccerbase. Archived from the original on 9 March 2023. Retrieved 30 April 2024.
25. "Paul Smith". Soccerbase. Archived from the original on 27 January 2008. Retrieved 17 September 2008.
26. Brown, p83
27. Triggs (2001), p344
28. Triggs (2001), p226
29. Triggs (2001), p349
30. ^ Triggs (1984), p16
31. ^ "Gillingham FC History (1893– )". Gillingham F.C. 9 September 2007. Archived from the original on 15 November 2007. Retrieved 10 January 2008.
32. Mark Mitchener (25 February 2004). "Hayter keeps feet on ground". BBC Sport. Archived from the original on 16 January 2008. Retrieved 19 September 2008.
33. Triggs (1984), p28
34. Elligate, p104
35. Triggs (2001), p45
36. ^ Triggs (2001), p313
37. Triggs (2001), p288
38. Triggs (2001), p185
39. ^ Triggs (2001), p41
40. Triggs (2001), p162
41. "Marlon King". Soccerbase. Archived from the original on 2 October 2008. Retrieved 17 September 2008.
42. "Blackburn Rovers seal deal for Gillingham midfielder Bradley Dack". Kent Online. Archived from the original on 10 November 2017. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
43. "Jim Corbett". Soccerbase. Archived from the original on 2 March 2005. Retrieved 17 September 2008.
44. Miles, Greg (20 July 2012). "Gillingham's Paulo Gazzaniga joins Southampton". Kent News. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 20 July 2012.
45. ^ Brown, p130
46. Barnes, Stuart (2007). News of the World Football Annual 2007–2008. Invincible Press. p. 334. ISBN 978-0-00-725555-9.
47. ^ Brown, p12
48. Brown, p34
49. Brown, p70
50. Brown, p.42
51. "Gillingham FC History (1893–)". Gillingham F.C. Archived from the original on 15 November 2007. Retrieved 8 August 2022.
52. Elligate, p91

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