The Opponent: Gillingham
Moving on from Crawley, we now arrive in the garden of England for the Gills big cup final. Having grew up in Kent and living in the same street as one of their driveway tarmac experts I am told that they still sing “we hate Swindon” at most of their games, home and away. Odd bunch it must be said. If you happen to arrive early today can I recommend The Royal Engineers Museum which is the most important collection of records and information about military engineering history. Outside there is a collection of tank-mounted bridges. Chatham Historic Dockyard is also well worth a visit should you wish to see a few boats.
Gillingham is a sizeable enough town with some 112’000 residents (this does not allow for the travelling folk that have slipped through the system). Some of the more notable people that can proudly call Gillingham their home include footballer Ryan Bertrand, Stupid haired Chef Gary Rhodes, Pop Idol fat cunt Rik Waller and presenter Sir David Frost. Gillingham has been the scene of two notable disasters: on 11 July 1929 a public demonstration by Gillingham Fire Brigade went wrong, resulting in 15 fatalities, and in the 1951 Gillingham bus disaster, 24 Royal Marine cadets aged 10 to 13 were tragically killed in a road accident.
Last Time Out – The Pikies 2 Yeovil 0. 16th August 2014 – Att: 5,173. After beating the same opposition just a few days before in The League Cup it looks as if the lucky heather was well and truly still hidden somewhere in Priestfield. Joe Martin opened the scoring with a 20-yard free-kick and Danny Kedwell made it 2-0 with a rebounded shot from his parried penalty, initially awarded after Nathan Smith's foul. Yeovil were denied a first-half goal by debutant keeper Stephen Bywater, who saved Kieffer Moore's tame spot-kick.
Starting XI – Bywater, Hessenthaler, Martin (Pritchard 87’), Hause, Legge, Egan, Hare (Fish 11’), Loft, German (Dickenson 67’), Kedwell, Morris. Hare replaced by Fish? You couldn’t make it up.
They have served us both – Bill Armstrong, Arthur Beadsworth, Aaron Brown, Paul Crichton, Moses Ashikodi, Trevor Benjamin, Deon Burton, Jonathan Douglas, Jimmy Bain, Austin Berkley, Freddie Cox, Stuart Elliot, Jock Wilson, Pat Terry, Sammy Simms, Luke Rooney, George Purcell, Iffy Onuara, George N’dah, Jay McEveley, Jimmy Kennedy, Junior Lewis, George Travers, Curtis Weston, Paul Smith, Alan Scott, Howard Pritchard, Callum Kennedy, Ken Lambert, Bob Innes, Leigh Mills, Frank Nouble, Giuliano Grazioli, Ty Gooden, Jimmy Glass, Jack Rutherford, Alan Reeeeves, David Peach, Martin Neyland, Mark McCammon, Darius Henderson, John Gorman, Dean Marney, Jo Kuffour, William Miller
One From The Past – Gillingham 0 Swindon Town 2 – Play Off Replay, Friday May 29th 1987 – Att: 18’491 - Two goals from Steve White at Crystal Palace's Selhurst Park secured Lou Macari’s Swindon Town a place in the Second Division.
Swindon: Digby, Hockaday, King, Coyne, Parkin, Calderwood, Bamber, Berry, Henry, White, Barnard.The Odds – Gillingham 2/1 Draw 12/5 Swindon 6/4
The Son Says – Despite the unfortunate result in Gatwick at the weekend he is sticking with a positive 2-0 victory.
The Prediction – The bookies seem more confident than me on this one, but I will stick my neck out and go for a 1-0 win, another Smith goal in front of 5’922 (312 from Swindon).
And Finally – Gillingham was a limb of the Cinque Ports and was of great importance as the Chatham Dockyard was within its boundaries. It was started by Elizabeth I and finally closed in 1984 causing massive local unemployment and abandoned caravans all over Medway.
