A middle-aged man with curly grey hair, wearing a red T-shirt with "Ryman Football League" printed on it
Ron Hillyard, Gillingham's appearance record holder, played a total of 655 games in a 17-year career with the club.

Gillingham Football Club is an English professional association football club based in Gillingham, Kent, playing in League One, the third level of the English football league system, as of the 2019–20 season. The club was formed in 1893 as New Brompton F.C.,[1] a name which was retained until 1913,[2] and has played home matches at Priestfield Stadium throughout its history.[1] The club joined the Football League in 1920,[3] was voted out of the league in favour of Ipswich Town at the end of the 1937–38 season,[4] but returned to the league 12 years later after it was expanded from 88 to 92 clubs.[5] 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.[6]

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 2022.

Honours and achievements

A sports stadium full of spectators. Those nearest the camera are waving blue and white flags.
Gillingham fans at the 2000 play-off final

Gillingham have won two major honours in English football; first the Football League Fourth Division title in the 1963–64 season[7] and then the Football League Two title in the 2012–13 season.[8] 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 secured a return to League One following relegation the previous season.[9]

Gillingham's only previous victory at 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.[10] 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.[11]

The Football League

Other honours

A group of men pose in two lines, one standing and one seated. Eleven of the men are wearing striped football shirts, long shorts and socks with shinpads worn over them. Of the other men, one is wearing a suit and tie and a flat cap, and the other is wearing a blazer, waistcoat, shirt without a tie, and a cricket-style cap.
The New Brompton team which won the Southern League Division Two championship in the 1894–95 season

National cup competitions

Player records

Age

Appearances

All competitive peacetime first team matches are included. Statistics correct as of the end of the 2022–23 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.[22]

# Name Years Leaguea FA Cup League Cupb Other Total
1 Ron Hillyard 1974–1991 563 (0) 34 (0) 44 (0) 14 (0) 655 (0)
2 John Simpson 1957–1972 571 (0) 26 (0) 19 (0) 0 (0) 616 (0)
3 Mark Weatherly 1974–1989 458 (49) 33 (5) 38 (3) 14 (1) 543 (58)
4 Jimmy Boswell 1946–1958 470 (0) 36 (0) 17 (0) 0 (0) 523 (0)
5 Charlie Marks 1943–1957 392 (0) 20 (0) 22 (0) 0 (0) 434 (0)
6 Dick Tydeman 1969–1977
1981–1984		 371 (3) 22 (0) 23 (1) 3 (0) 419 (4)
7 Paul Smith[23] 1997–2005
2005–2006		 345 (4) 21 (0) 18 (0) 12 (2) 396 (6)
8 Jock Robertson 1919–1933 365 (0) 30 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 395 (0)
9 Brian Yeo 1963–1975 356 (11) 16 (0) 15 (0) 0 (0) 387 (11)
10 Nicky Southall[24] 1997–2001
2002–2005
2007–2009
2010–2012		 338 (23) 17 (0) 11 (1) 14 (0) 379 (24)
a. Includes Football League, Southern League and Kent League
b. Includes Football League Cup, Southern League Cup and Kent League Cup

Goalscorers

Fred Cheesmur scored six goals in a match in 1930, a club record haul for a match in The Football League.

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.[22]

# Name Years Leaguea FA Cup League Cupb Other Total
1 Brian Yeo 1963–1975 136 (356) 4 (16) 9 (15) 0 (0) 149 (387)
2 Hughie Russell 1946–1952 106 (186) 12 (23) 2 (0) 0 (0) 120 (209)
3 Tug Wilson 1936–1949 91 (211) 5 (16) 17 (25) 0 (1) 113 (253)
4 Tony Cascarino[D] 1981–1987 78 (219) 11 (17) 9 (18) 12 (15) 110 (269)
5 Brian Gibbs 1962–1969 101 (259) 3 (9) 6 (16) 0 (0) 110 (284)
6 Steve Lovell 1986–1993 94 (233) 5 (10) 2 (17) 3 (15) 104 (275)
7 Damien Richardson 1972–1991 94 (323) 5 (14) 3 (20) 0 (0) 102 (357)
8 Ken Price 1976–1983 78 (255) 7 (21) 4 (18) 0 (0) 89 (294)
9 Cody McDonald 2010–2011
2013–2017		 77 (198) 1 (7) 1 (6) 2 (9) 81 (220)
10 Ernie Morgan[D] 1953–1957 73 (155) 4 (8) 0 (0) 0 (0) 77 (163)
11 Danny Westwood 1975–1982 74 (211) 1 (12) 2 (12) 0 (3) 77 (238)
a. Includes Football League, Southern League and Kent League
b. Includes Football League Cup, Southern League Cup and Kent League Cup

International caps

A young man with a shaven head, wearing a blue and white T-shirt
Andrew Crofts, the club's international caps record holder

Transfer fees

Record transfer fees paid

# Name Fee Paid to Date Notes
1 Carl Asaba £600,000 Reading 29 August 1998 [34]
2 Robert Taylor £500,000 Brentford 1 August 1998 [35]
3 Paul Shaw £450,000 Millwall 4 July 2000 [36]
4= Marlon King £250,000 Barnet 28 June 2000 [37]
4= Ade Akinbiyi £250,000 Norwich City 6 January 1997 [38]
4= Chris Hope £250,000 Scunthorpe United 4 July 2000 [39]

Record transfer fees received

# Name Fee Received from Date Notes
1 Robert Taylor £1,500,000 Manchester City 29 November 1999 [35]
2 Ade Akinbiyi £1,200,000 Bristol City 1 June 1998 [38]
3 Marlon King £950,000 Nottingham Forest 27 November 2003 [40]
4 Bradley Dack £750,000 Blackburn Rovers 27 June 2017 [41]
5 Jimmy Corbett £525,000 Blackburn Rovers 21 May 1998 [42]

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.[43]

Managerial records

A black-and-white portrait of a dark-haired man with a large moustache, wearing a three-piece suit and tie
William Ironside Groombridge, the club's first manager
See also: List of Gillingham F.C. managers

Club records

Goals

Points

Matches

A football team comprising ten players in striped shirts and one in a shirt of a single colour pose for the camera. Five of the men are standing and the other six seated in front of them. Also posing with them are an elderly man in a bowler hat with a chain of office around his neck, and twelve men in business suits, some of whom are wearing hats. A crowd of spectators is visible behind the group.
The Gillingham team and officials pictured before the club's first ever Football League match in 1920

Firsts

Record wins

Record defeat

Attendances

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.[50] 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.[51]

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

Specific

  1. ^ a b Triggs (1984), p8
  2. ^ Triggs (1984), p9
  3. ^ Triggs (1984), p10
  4. ^ Triggs (1984), p13
  5. ^ Triggs (1984), p19
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n "Gillingham". The Football Club History Database. Retrieved 17 September 2008.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Brown, p3
  8. ^ a b "Gillingham 2–2 AFC Wimbledon". BBC Sport. 20 April 2013. Retrieved 15 August 2013.
  9. ^ "Gillingham 1–0 Shrewsbury". BBC Sport. 23 May 2009. Retrieved 23 May 2009.
  10. ^ "Second time lucky for Gills". BBC Sport. 28 May 2000. Retrieved 6 August 2008.
  11. ^ Brown, pp55, 56, 58
  12. ^ Brown, p109
  13. ^ Brown, pp83, 105
  14. ^ a b c Brown, p56
  15. ^ Brown, p58
  16. ^ a b c d e "New Brompton". The Football Club History Database. Retrieved 18 September 2008.
  17. ^ a b Brown, p55
  18. ^ "Freeman Makes History". Gillingham F.C. 12 November 2007. Archived from the original on 19 December 2007. Retrieved 12 November 2007.
  19. ^ "Andy's Colourful Career". Dover Athletic F.C. 28 May 2007. Archived from the original on 27 July 2011. Retrieved 19 January 2008.
  20. ^ "Games played by Andy Hessenthaler in 2005/2006". Soccerbase. Archived from the original on 10 December 2008. Retrieved 17 September 2008.
  21. ^ Bradley, Andy (19 September 1987). "Extra Time". Gillingham F.C. Official Matchday Magazine.
  22. ^ a b Brown, pp122–129.
  23. ^ "Paul Smith". Soccerbase. Archived from the original on 27 January 2008. Retrieved 17 September 2008.
  24. ^ "Nicky Southall". Soccerbase. Retrieved 4 March 2009.
  25. ^ Brown, p83
  26. ^ Triggs (2001), p344
  27. ^ Triggs (2001), p226
  28. ^ Triggs (2001), p349
  29. ^ a b Triggs (1984), p16
  30. ^ a b c d "Gillingham FC History (1893– )". Gillingham F.C. 9 September 2007. Archived from the original on 15 November 2007. Retrieved 10 January 2008.
  31. ^ Mark Mitchener (25 February 2004). "Hayter keeps feet on ground". BBC Sport. Retrieved 19 September 2008.
  32. ^ Triggs (1984), p28
  33. ^ Elligate, p104
  34. ^ Triggs (2001), p45
  35. ^ a b Triggs (2001), p313
  36. ^ Triggs (2001), p288
  37. ^ Triggs (2001), p185
  38. ^ a b Triggs (2001), p41
  39. ^ Triggs (2001), p162
  40. ^ "Marlon King". Soccerbase. Archived from the original on 2 October 2008. Retrieved 17 September 2008.
  41. ^ "Blackburn Rovers seal deal for Gillingham midfielder Bradley Dack". Kent Online. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
  42. ^ "Jim Corbett". Soccerbase. Archived from the original on 2 March 2005. Retrieved 17 September 2008.
  43. ^ 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.
  44. ^ a b Brown, p130
  45. ^ Barnes, Stuart (2007). News of the World Football Annual 2007–2008. Invincible Press. p. 334. ISBN 978-0-00-725555-9.
  46. ^ a b c Brown, p12
  47. ^ Brown, p34
  48. ^ Brown, p70
  49. ^ Brown, p.42
  50. ^ "Gillingham FC History (1893–)". Gillingham F.C. Archived from the original on 15 November 2007. Retrieved 8 August 2022.
  51. ^ Elligate, p91

Categories