Ten things....
Gillingham
1 This location was named by Anglo Saxons when they came to the Medway, for a UEFA contest with Romanised locals near the estuary.
2 History of the place went up a division when Normans made it their manor, by winning the medieval knockout competition on The Green.
3 The Royal Engineers had a pitch at Brompton and were also a top footy side in the late 1800s. They inspired other clubs to develop and somebody thought nearby Priestfield could be used - if levelled like a barracks parade ground.
4 New Brompton FC were a non-league outfit but changed title to become Gillingham prior to WW1. That was a good idea because it was actually the name of the town in which they were playing representative football.
5 Gillingham were in third division south from the start in 1921. Unfortunately they went bust in 1938 prior to WW2, which meant a bit of a wake up for a Southern League wartime call up.
6 They made it back to FL in 1950 but dropped to div4. Their ebbing supporters wondered when the tide would turn, to rise above lower league levels.
7 As the local economy enjoyed a consumer society in the sixties and seventies and Medway docks were busy, fans got along to Priestfield - for the self same old div3 stuff as per usual.
8 In 1987 Gills reached play-offs for a chance to get up to div2. The finals were two leg, home and away on aggregate - yeah, yeah, you guessed.
9 In 1999 Gills got to play-offs again to try to reach that elusive tier two. They were two nil up but there was loads of stoppage time - oh dear, they lost again but on penalties.
10 Peter Taylor turned up for a year and Gills fans really wondered if the club, with a rebuilt ground was on the up at long last. But they are more experienced and realistic now, so probably a tad wiser to boot.
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