2021/22 Prediction League; Game 15 v Gillingham FC (away)

Div3North · 28-10-2021, 21:15

Gillingham FC

V

Accrington Stanley

2021/22 Prediction League Game 15; v Gilligan's Isle (away)

For those of you who like a game with A Bit of Everything, the place to be last Saturday was, I suspect, The Excelsior Stadium (currently the "Penny Cars Stadium" for sponsorship reasons - and where else but in Scotland would you get a car for a penny (or a bawbee)) - which is the North Lanarkshire home of Airdrieonians FC .......

Second-placed Airdrie played sixth placed Dumbarton in Scottish League One; it went something like this .....

8 mins - Rhys McCabe puts Airdrie ahead from the spot
25 mins - Ross McClean equalised for the visitors
45 mins - Dumbarton have "their two CBs and their whole MF booked by half time"
58 mins - Airdrie's second penalty - Ross McClean (Dumbarton) sent off. Penalty missed by Ross McCabe
88 mins - Dumbarton CH Gregor Buchanan also sent off, for second yellow
90 mins - Easton scores for Airdrie with a "brilliant thunderbolt" - 2-1 Airdrie
93 mins - Dumbarton's MF Andy Geggan gets his 2nd yellow and their third early bath
94 mins - MF Paul Paton equalises for 8-man Dumbarton (2-2)
96 mins - (6th minute of 4 mins added time) Airdrie striker Salim Kouider-Aissa pops up to score their third goal (3-2); Dumbarton's manager Stevie Farrell gets a red card ......

All told (I think) Dumbarton get six yellows (two players getting two each plus two others) and four reds (including The Boss)
.....no. not Springsteen

They don't do Boring Goalless Desmonds in Scotland, I can tell you!

And speaking of Lanarkshire (yes, we were) who remembers Third Lanark? They were actually based in Glasgow, and formed as Third Lanark Athletic Club was a professional Scottish football club in 1872 as an offshoot of the 3rd Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers ... the club was a founder member of the Scottish Football Association (SFA) in 1872 and the Scottish Football League (SFL) in 1890. They played in the top division of the SFL for the majority of the club's existence, and won the league championship in 1903–04 and the Scottish Cup twice, in 1889 and 1905. They went out of business in 1967, six years after having finished in third place in the SFL. There have been two amateur "Third Lanarks" since ...

Third Lanark were known as The Thirds, The Warriors, the Redcoats and "The Hi Hi". The last nickname was rumoured to have started during a match in the late 1890s, when a defender kicked the ball so high out of the ground that the crowd started screaming "High High High" and that nickname stayed with the club ever since - sort of a Scottish version of "Oggy Oggy Oggy" with haggis instead of leeks

Starter for Ten, then; who sang the UK entry in the 1960 Eurovision Song Contest, called, "Looking High, High, High",

"I once had a love and oh, I loved her very dearly
She told me she loved me so, I thought she spoke sincerely
But one day, away, I found that she had flown
And off to find that love of mine I set alone
Looking high, high, high, looking low, low, low
Wondering why, why, why did she go, go, go?
For if I, I, I don't find my love, I know
I shall die, die, die, 'cause I love her so"

and in what place in the competition did it finish after the votes were all counted ...... No, it wasn't last ......... although with those lyrics it could well have been ............

None of which has anything to do with Gillingham .....

Gillingham (Kent) is a large town which houses, amongst other things, the only EFL team in the County .... "Gillingham" means a "homestead of Gylla's family", from Old English words "ham" ( meaning "village, homestead") and "ingas" (meaning "family, followers"), and was first recorded in the 10th century as "Gyllingeham" ....The name "Gillingham" is recorded in the Domesday book of 1086. It is said to have been named after a warlord, Gyllingas, — from the old English "gyllan", meaning "to shout". He was a notable man in Kent's history, who led his warriors into battle screaming and shouting ("Oggy Oggy Oggy" "Hi Hi Hi"). The town's name, as you know, is pronounced with a soft 'g' (as in 'ginger'), compared to the hard 'g' (as in 'girl') used for Gillingham, Dorset and Gillingham, Norfolk. Hands up who knew there were three Gillinghams?

The town has been the scene of two notable disasters (three, if you count appointing That Nice Mr Evans as manager) ......... on 4th December 1951 there was what became known as the Gillingham bus disaster (which I've mentioned previously) in which 24 Royal Marine cadets aged 10 to 13 were killed in a road accident, but 22 years earlier, on 11 July 1929 a public demonstration by Gillingham Fire Brigade went wrong, resulting in 15 fatalities .......

Each summer in the 1920s, a fair was organized in Gillingham Park to raise funds for the local St Bartholomew's Hospital. The traditional highlight of the event, which took place at the end of the festivities, was a demonstration of firefighting and rescue by the Gillingham Fire Brigade. Each year, a house of wood and canvas, three stories and 40 feet high, was constructed in the park as the venue for a mock wedding reception at which two firemen, costumed as a bride and groom, would be entertaining their "guests" - other firemen, Royal Naval Cadets from the nearby Chatham unit of the Volunteer Cadet Corps, and sea scouts.

The display involved the pretended break out of a small fire, necessitating the rescue of the occupants from the upper levels of the building. Flares and smoke bombs were used to give the illusion of the structure being ablaze, and after everybody had been "rescued" from the building, a real fire was set to enable the fire brigade to demonstrate their firefighting skills. After the mock wedding, the six men and nine boys aged between 10 and 14 were ready to enact their staged rescue when a real fire was accidentally started; the cause remains unknown.

Flames instantly took hold and spread the full height of the structure, trapping the occupants inside. Other firefighters realised that they were now dealing with a genuine emergency, but initially most of the spectators didn't, taking the cries for help they heard to be part of the performance, until they witnessed two boys with their clothing ablaze jump to their deaths from the top of the structure. The fire was extinguished within a few minutes, but had been of such intensity that 13 people died at the scene. Two victims were rescued alive, but both died of their injuries in the hospital, St Bartholomew's, for which they had been intending to raise funds, making the final death toll 15.

Famous people associated with Gillingham include Brian Moore (ITV commentator), Gary Rhodes (chef), Jack Hues – musician, lead singer of new wave band Wang Chung - no, really!, Paul Nihill (medal-winning road race-walker), and Hector Gray GC – an RAF officer posthumously awarded the George Cross for conduct under torture by the Japanese army in 1943.

Gray smuggled medicine into the prisoner of war camp to help the many seriously ill prisoners incarcerated there, and was a conduit for news from the outside world. When the Japanese grew suspicious he was tortured and interrogated for six months but refused to divulge the names of fellow officers, such as Captain Douglas Ford of the Royal Scots, and Colonel Lanceray Arthur Newnham of the Middlesex Regiment. He was executed by firing squad, with fellow prisoners, on 18 December 1943 and buried in Stanley Military Cemetery in Hong Kong.

Finally, Irishman Private David Bell VC of the 2nd Battalion, 24th Regiment of Foot, who, in 1867, was one of a group of five, gazetted

"For the very gallant and daring manner in which, on the 7th of May, 1867, they risked their lives in manning a boat and proceeding through a dangerous surf to the rescue of some of their comrades, who formed part of an expedition which had been sent to the Island of Little Andaman, by order of the Chief Commissioner of British Burmah, with the view of ascertaining the fate of the Commander and seven of the crew of the ship " Assam Valley," who had landed there, and were supposed to have been murdered by the natives"

How little we know or remember the heroics of our fellow man ....

Gillingham Football Club was founded in 1893 as New Brompton Football Club, a name it retained until 1912, and first joined the Football League in 1920. After 18 unsuccessful seasons, Gillingham were voted out of the league in favour of Ipswich Town at the end of the 1937–38 season (with an away record of W1 D1 L19 and an away GD of -41), and returned to the Southern League. The club was voted back in in 1950, when the League was expanded from 88 to 92 clubs. Twice in the late 1980s Gillingham came close to winning promotion to the second tier of English football, but a decline then set in and in 1993 they narrowly avoided relegation to the Football Conference.

Between 2000 and 2005 - having won promotion through the play-offs behind PNE and Burnley by beating Wigan 3-2 aet (two of their three goals coming in the last 6 minutes of overtime) - Gillingham were in the second tier of the English football league system for the only time in their history, achieving a club record highest league finish of eleventh place in the second tier in 2003. After a number of further relegations and promotions, the team have competed in League One since 2013.

Goalkeeper Ron Hillyard holds the record for appearances in all competitions, having played 657 matches between 1974 and 1990, while the record for appearances solely in the Football League is held by another goalkeeper, John Simpson, with 571 ...Brian Yeo is the club's all-time leading league goal scorer, having scored a total of 136 goals between 1963 and 1975; the highest number of goals scored by a player in a single game at a professional level is the six registered by Fred Cheesmur against Merthyr Town in April 1930

They finished last season in 10th place, above us on GD (+3 plays -5); their season's record was P46 W19 D10 L17 GF63 GA60 for 67 points ...... we beat them 2-0 at their place ten days before Christmas, goals by Colby, Bishop of Wham and MrI'mNotPlayingForYou (Good!), but came to ours a month later and did us 1-0 ...... perhaps it was to do with the Ref being Darren Drysdale? Head to head (since 2006) is W4 D3 L7, but in the past we'veve beaten them 4-3 and 7-4 (I was there!), so yah sucks boo!

Seven left Priestfield in the summer; a Frenchman, an Irishman, four Englishmen and a Monserratian .......... Frenchman GK Sacha Bastien joined Stevenage, Irish GK Jack Bonham went to Stoke, LW Jordan Graham to Brum, LMF Tyreke Johnson to non-league Woking, LB Connor Ogilvie to Pompey, striker Dominic Samuel to Ross County, and Monserrat-born Matty Willock to Salford MoneyBags ..... eight came in, including David Tutonda, a LB from DR of Congo from Brizzle, German CB Max Ehmer also from Brizzle (did I see that Joey Boy got into hot water again last week?), CMF Olly Lee from Hearts (Edinburgh, not Kelty), Irish AMF Ben Reeves from Plymouth, 8' 6" GK Aaron Chapman from The 'Well and LW Mustapha Carayol, who's been all over the UK (but never played more than 50 games for one team), and spent the last couple of seasons in Cyprus and Turkey .....

At home, P7 W2 D2 L3 GF7 GA11; away, W1 D4 L3 GF8 GA10, for an overall P15 W3 D6 L6 GF15 GA21 Pts 15 for 19th place; home wins 2-1 over Morecambe (18th) and 1-0 against Donnie (23rd), away win 2-0 at Cambridge (17th) ........ Crewe have 8 points, Donnie have 11, Charlton 12, Fleetwoof 13, and Shrewsbury 14; Morecambe share 15 with the Gills, Cambridge and Pompey have 16; we have 20, in 11th place

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 3.00pm on Saturday 29th October (don't forget to put your clocks back that night; or the night before, if you want a good reason for forgetting to post an entry (Chris) ...... Cup week coming up; soon be Christmas; and I hope you don't get grabbed by the Ghosties on Sunday night ...... or, of course, by the ...... ermmm ...... Ghoulies!

And the UK's "Looking High, High, High" was performed by Bryan Johnson, and finished second (of 13) ........... we didn't win the competition until 1967 ..... we haven't scored a point since about 1998 ......... rigged? Poppycock!

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

COYR!