2019/20 Prediction League; Game 16 v Gillingham FC (home)

Div3North · 24-10-2019, 22:49

Accrington Stanley

v

Gillingham FC

2019/20 Prediction League; Game 16 v The Quarter-Pinters (home)

“Quarter Pinters?” you’re all thinking ……… has our resident loonie finally flipped? Or has he run out of Wynonie-pills? Well, for those of you who still, like me, use £.s.d, furlongs, rods, poles and perches, and lbs and oz; back to your school days – what makes a Pint? Four Gills, make a Pint, that’s what! So the whole team (excluding subs) is 2¾ pints

[I wrote the next paragraph on Tuesday evening]

And something else; I’ve been checking Ipswich’s “Goals Against” column, which – after 12 games – now reads “7”; they conceded four in August – one to the Moggies, one to the Wombles, and two to the Posh (scored by their well-known forward line of Tony Eisa and Partners Ltd); they conceded one in September (Tranmere); they’ve now conceded two in October …………. So; seven clean sheets; one goal three times, and two goals twice; and only one player in their 18 hours of football has scored twice against them ……………. Step forward, then, His Excellentness the Bishop Colby of Wham, who now features on the list of League One leading goal scorers, sandwiched between Armand Gnanduillet and Tarique Fosu-Henry, and also level with Posh’s Marcus Maddison and Special K Jackson …………………. And “Bishop of Wham” isn’t mine – it’s His Lordship’s , but it’s eminently worth nicking!

[Like buses, isn’t it? No one does it until Sunday, then Crooks gets a brace as well as Rotherham give them back-to-back defeats and help to knock them off the top; mind you, we helped too …………………………..]

And there were some interesting results and developments on Tuesday; Bolton won at last (Bless!), the Wombles lost, Tranmere shipped five at Sunderland, and Sarfend – one win and two drawn out of thirteen games at kick-off time – got a new manager in Sol “ISavedMacclesfield” Campbell, (who was the only other person interviewed when they sacked off Hendrik the Swede) had two men sent off at home to Donnie (after 6 minutes and 53 minutes), took the lead (for twelve minutes), and got an Old-Style (Public) School Book-down-the-seat-of-your-pants caning (7-1, which I think is their worst ever home loss) ……….. their Goals Against column wasn’t thrilling anyway, but currently after 14 games they’ve shipped 40 goals, leading me to think that Sol – who rather optimistically signed on for three years - might need to get his kit on; they’ve conceded four goals four times, three goals four times, and now a Len (Goodman) …………. Only MK Dons have failed to score against them …………. And the next worst goals against records are Bolton and Morecambe, both of whom have conceded a (comparatively) very respectable 28 …..

The name Gillingham (which is in Kent, if you wondered), apparently means "a homestead of Gylla's family", from Old English ham ("village, homestead") and ingas ("family, followers"), and was first recorded in the 10th century as Gyllingeham; it was mentioned in the Domesday Book in 1086, and is said to have been named after a Warlord called Gyllingas, who was famed for going into battle screaming and shouting ………… (I’d probably do the same, but for a different reason and with an ignoble intent) …………. After 1066 And All That it belonged to William’s half-brother (Odo, Bishop of Bayeux( "Anybody want to buy a tapestry?"). It’s not very far from Rochester (“Yessir, Mr Benny”, although my favourite was always Robert Guillaume, who played Benson du Bois, the Butler in “Soap” circa 1977 – for which he won an Emmy; he also voiced Rafiki in “The Lion King”, which won him a Grammy), and according to my researches is known for two Disasters, they being on 11 July 1929 during a public demonstration by Gillingham Fire Brigade that went wrong, resulting in 15 fatalities, and the 1951 Gillingham bus disaster, where 24 Royal Marine cadets aged 10 to 13 were killed in a road accident – which doesn’t make it somewhere that I’m moved to want to visit; and nor does the fact that the team’s managed by That Nice Mr Evans!

The success of a local junior football side (Chatham Excelsior F.C.) led to a group of businessmen meeting to create a Grown Up football club which could compete in bigger competitions. They formed New Brompton F.C. on 18 May 1893 and purchased the plot of land which later became Priestfield Stadium; New Brompton FC became Gillingham FC in 1912. Their first match was on 2 September 1893, a 5-1 defeat to Woolwich Arsenals Reserves in front of a crowd of 2,000, and they were among the founder members of the Southern League when it was set up in 1894, where they became Champions in its first season (1894–95), going on to defeat Swindon Town in a Test Match to win promotion (why play cricket to decide a footie promotion?). They joined the Football League in 1920, but were voted out of the league in favour of Ipswich Town at the end of the 1937–38 season (which no doubt went down well); they returned to the FL in 1950 after it was expanded from 88 to 92 clubs. They nearly went up to the second tier in the 1980s, and nearly got GreasyPoled to the Bananarama in 1993; between 2000 and 2005, they did reach the Championship (for the only time in their history) achieving a club record highest league finish of eleventh place in 2002–03.

So; starters for 10 ………………. (1) In 1987, Gillingham hit the headlines when they won two consecutive games against Southend and Chesterfield; but what was it about the wins that was so newsworthy? (2) Steve Bruce and Tony Cascarino both started their careers playing for the Gills; Cascarino was signed from a non-League side called Crockenhill – but what was the fee they paid for him? And (3) Gillingham are the only League side in Kent, but they weren’t always; which other Kent side played in the Football League up to just over 25 years ago?

This is their 127th year overall, and 7th in a row in League One; last season they finished 13th (one above us) with a record that read P46 W15 D10 L21 GF61 GA72 with 55 points; they opened our first-ever League One season by beating us 2-0 at our place, but later in the season we took a point from them with a Goalless Desmond; Head Coach Steve Lovell was toast two games before the end of the season, in good time to employ TN Mr Evans …………. They certainly cleared the decks, parting company with an astonishing 20 players, including 3 who were “released”, seven who were given free transfers, six who MutuallyConsented, and an “£undisclosed”; GK Thomas Holy (to Ipswich), RB Luke O’Neil to the Wombles, striker Tom Eaves to Hull, MF Charles Noyell (who went to Tulsa Golden Hurricane – no. nor have I), loads of people who went to non-league sides like Miss Faversham Town and Hernia Bay, another one to the Wombles, one to Stevenage, and one to Swindon Toiwn.

Replacements came flooding in; Brentford GK Jack Bonham; Spurs defender Connor Ogilvie; the PhoneyWombles DMF Ousseynou Cisse; RB Lee Hodson from Rangers; Cardiff CMF Stuart O’Keefe; CMF Matty Willock from Man U (I took great care to spell that one correctly!): LW Mark Marshall from Charlton; striker Mikael Mandron from Colchester; and LMF Ben Pringle (who bakes crisps on his days off) from PNE …………. Half a dozen in on loan, including Scottish striker Alex Jakubiak from Watford and CMF Olly Lee from Hearts ……………. Their current home record is P7 W3 D1 L3 GF14 GA8; away record is P7 W0 D5 L2 GF5 GA9 for an overall season to date of P14 W3 D6 L5 GF19 GA17 for 15 points …………………… Leading scorers are Jakubiak (4), Brandon Hanlon (3) and Mikael Ndjoli (also 3)

“Won None” away from home I like the sound of (except that we haven’t scored in the League against them in League One yet), and “Won Three” at home might not be as good as that sounds, since the three teams they’ve beaten are 24th-placed Bolton (5-0, when everyone beat them 5-0) who have 1 win and 4 draws, 23rd placed Southend (3-1) with 1 win and 2 draws, and 3rd-placed Wycombe (2-0), with 7 wins, six draws, and but one defeat – this one! 19 goals in 14 games; out of the EFL Cup in Round 1, 4-1 on pens after a home Desmond to Newport, and eliminated from the Troffy already with 2 defeats, 3-2 at home to Colchester and 4-0 at Luton, they’ve got a trip to the Black Moggies in Round One of the FA Cup, so we can expect them to be concentrating on the League any time now

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3.00pm on Saturday 26th October ………….. their former Goalkeeper Ron Hillyard (remember him?) holds the record for Gillingham appearances, having played 657 matches in all competitions between 1974 and 1990, while the record for League appearances is held by another club GK (John Simpson) with 571 between 1957 and 1972. Brian Yeo is the club's all-time leading league goal scorer with 136 goals between 1963 and 1975. The Gills also hold the record for the fewest goals conceded by a team in the course of a 46-game season, having conceded just 20 in Division 3 in the 1995–96 season, during which goalkeeper Jim Stannard kept 29 clean sheets and Gillingham were promoted in second place behind PNE, winning 22, drawing 17 and losing 7; 6 goals shipped at home in 23; 14 shipped away.

And it was goals that made the two wins a week apart in 1987 so news-worthy, when Gillingham beat Southend 8-1 and TwistySpires Utd 10-0 on consecutive Saturdays; and the “other” Kent league side was Maidstone United, who folded in 1992; and the transfer fee for Tony Cascarino – and if this isn't a bargain I don’t know what is – was a set of tracksuits!

Good luck to everyone! ……………… Keep the Faith! …………..And thanks for playing!