Gillingham F.C.

Gillingham F.C.

Gillingham Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Gillingham, Kent. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1893 and joined the Football League in 1920. They have won the Kent League and Kent Senior Cup twice in their history.

About Gillingham F.C. in brief

Summary Gillingham F.C.Gillingham Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Gillingham, Kent, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1893 and joined the Football League in 1920. They were voted out of the league in favour of Ipswich Town at the end of the 1937–38 season, but returned to it 12 years later after it was expanded from 88 to 92 clubs. Twice in the late 1980s they 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. During this period the club produced future stars Steve Bruce and Tony Cascarino. In 1987, Gills hit the headlines when they famously bought non-league Crockenhill in exchange for a set of tracksuits for a player who was on the track track for a year. The Gills also won the Southern League Cup and the league title in 1948–49. They remained in this division until 1964, when manager Freddie Cox led them to promotion, winning the first championship in the club’s history. In the 1970s, the team finished back to the Fourth Division in 1970–71, but were soon promoted back to Third Division in the 1973–74 season. In 2002–03, the club achieved a club record highest league finish of eleventh place in 2002-03. They have won the Kent League and Kent Senior Cup twice in their history, in 1945 and 1948.

They also won a famous cup victory over Football League First Division Sunderland and held Manchester City to a draw before losing in the replay. They are the only Kent-based club in the Football league, the \”Gills\” play their home matches at the Priestfield Stadium. The club’s first match was played on 2 September 1893, losing 1–5 to Woolwich Arsenal’s reserve side in front of a crowd of 2,000. In 1912 the directors passed a resolution to change the club’s name to Gills F. C., and the team played under this name throughout the 1912–13 season, although the change was not officially ratified by the shareholders until the following year. In 1950, plans were announced to expand the football league from 22 to 24 teams and, taking into account their local success in the interim, Gillham were re-elected to Football League with a landslide vote. In 1958, the Gills were placed in the newly created Fourth Division. They spent eight seasons in Division Three before the restructuring of the League system for the 1958–59 season saw them placed in Division Two. They were named Champions in the first season going on to defeat Swindon Town in a test match to win promotion. The team finished the season on 60 points with Carlisle United, but with a fractionally better average goal difference than Carlisle. The season was the title finish in Football League Division One, which was the tightest league history.