1994–95 Gillingham F.C. season

Gillingham won their first away game of the season at Wigan Athletic's Springfield Park (pictured c. 1982), but did not win another Third Division match away from home in 1994.

Gillingham's first match was at home to Hartlepool United and resulted in a goalless draw. Foster made his debut, but had to be substituted after injuring his ankle. Although he was able to continue playing for two weeks, the injury then recurred and kept him out of the team until November.[3] He scored his first goal for the team in the second league match of the season, a 3–0 victory away to Wigan Athletic; this was Gillingham' biggest win away from home for more than three years.[7] The team extended their unbeaten run from the start of the season to three games with a 1–1 draw at home to Rochdale but then lost away games against Scunthorpe United and Exeter City. In Foster's absence, Andy Arnott was brought into the starting line-up against Scunthorpe for the first time since the opening game of the season,[8] but neither he nor fellow forward Paul Baker was able to score in either game, with both finishing 3–0 to Gillingham's opponents.[9] In response to the lack of goals, Flanagan signed Scottish forward Paul Ritchie on loan from Dundee.[10] It was the second loan spell at Priestfield Stadium for Ritchie, who had played six Third Division games for Gillingham in 1993.[10] He scored on his second debut for Gillingham to help the team to a 3–1 win at home to Scarborough on 10 September.[9]

Following the victory over Scarborough, Gillingham began a run of consecutive defeats, losing at home to Preston North End and away to Hartlepool and Walsall. With Foster still out of action and Ritchie due to return to Dundee, Flanagan signed experienced Welsh forward Chris Pike from Hereford United for £15,000 (equivalent to £30,000 in 2020);[11] he made his debut on 1 October at home to Mansfield Town.[8] The match resulted in a fourth consecutive league defeat, leaving Gillingham 20th in the table, only two places off the bottom of the entire Football League.[12][13] A week later, Pike scored his first goal at home to Torquay United as Gillingham won 1–0 to end the run of defeats. He scored four more goals in the next four games, which resulted in two defeats, one win, and one draw, after which Gillingham had risen to 17th in the table.

Gillingham extended their unbeaten league run to four games with two more draws in the last two games of November, but then began December with consecutive defeats at home to Wigan Athletic and away to Rochdale; in the latter game Foster scored his first goal since August. The team ended the year by playing three games in six days. On Boxing Day the team won 4–1 at home to Fulham, the first time Gillingham had scored four goals in a game for nearly two years. The attendance of 4,737 was the largest of the season for a Third Division game at Priestfield.[12] The following day Gillingham lost 1–0 away to Barnet, beginning a run of three consecutive defeats. The team's final match of 1994 was at home to Carlisle United on New Year's Eve; Carlisle won 1–0 meaning that Gillingham finished the year 18th in the table.[12][14] Although the team had only lost 3 of 10 league games at Priestfield up to this point in the season, their league position suffered from the fact that they had only won once and drawn twice in 11 games on their opponents' grounds, the worst away record in the division.

Gillingham's first league match of 1995 took place at Northampton Town's Sixfields Stadium.

On 9 January, the club was declared insolvent and placed in administrative receivership; after nearly a decade of financial difficulties, the club's debts were estimated at approximately £2 million (equivalent to £3.9 million in 2020). Administrators from accountants Kidsons Impey took over the day-to-day running of the club while searching for a buyer.[15][16] The first game after this announcement was away to Northampton Town and resulted in a 2–0 defeat for Gillingham, the team's third consecutive league defeat. The next game, which did not take place until 4 February due to the postponement of several scheduled matches, was a goalless draw at home to Lincoln City, the fourth consecutive league game in which the team had failed to score; the result meant that Gillingham had again slipped to 20th in the table. The team ended the goalless run with a 2–1 victory away to Doncaster Rovers in the first game of February, Pike scoring twice.[12] It was the first time Gillingham had won away from home in the Third Division since August.[12] The team's form away from home remained largely poor, however; they played three further away matches during February, against Chesterfield, Darlington and Mansfield Town, and lost all three without scoring a goal.

On 28 February, three days after the defeat away to Mansfield, the administrators took the decision to make Flanagan redundant; Smillie was appointed player-manager for the remainder of the season.[17] His first game in charge resulted in a 3–1 defeat at home to Walsall.[12] Following this game, however, Gillingham did not lose for five games, their longest unbeaten run of the season.

Gillingham finished 19th in the 22-team Third Division.[18]

Key

Results[12]

As a Third Division team, Gillingham entered the 1994–95 FA Cup in the first round and were paired with Heybridge Swifts of the Isthmian League First Division, three levels lower in the English football league system. Gillingham defeated their semi-professional opponents 2–0. In the second round, they played fellow Third Division team Fulham at Priestfield; the initial match finished 1–1, necessitating a replay at Fulham's Craven Cottage stadium. The replay also finished 1–1 but the rules of the competition meant that on this occasion extra time was played; Robbie Reinelt scored the winning goal during the extra period. In the third round, Gillingham played Sheffield Wednesday of the FA Premier League; the match drew a crowd of 10,425, the largest attendance recorded at Priestfield since 1987. Wednesday took a 2–0 lead in the first half and, despite having their starting goalkeeper, Kevin Pressman, sent off and Pike scoring from a penalty kick, the Premier League team held on for a 2–0 victory.

As a Third Division team, Gillingham entered the 1994–95 Football League Cup in the first round and were paired with Reading of the Football League First Division, the second tier of English football. Gillingham lost the first leg of the two-legged tie 1–0 and the second 3–0 and were eliminated from the competition by an aggregate score of 4–0.

The 1994–95 Football League Trophy, a tournament exclusively for Second and Third Division teams, began with a preliminary round in which the teams were drawn into groups of three, contested on a round-robin basis. Gillingham were grouped with Brentford and Brighton & Hove Albion, both of the Second Division. Gillingham's first match was at home to Brighton and resulted in a 1–1 draw;[19] the game drew an attendance of only 963, the lowest crowd for a competitive match at Priestfield since 1973.[20]

• Brown, Tony (2003). The Definitive Gillingham F.C.: A Complete Record. Nottingham: Soccerdata. ISBN 1-899468-20-X.
• Elligate, David (2009). Gillingham FC On This Day. Durrington: Pitch Publishing. ISBN 978-1-9054-1145-0.
• Rollin, Glenda; Rollin, Jack, eds. (1996). Rothmans Football Yearbook 1995–96. London: Headline Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-74727-823-8.
• Triggs, Roger (1999). Images of England: Gillingham Football Club. Stroud: Tempus Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0-7524-1567-0.
• Triggs, Roger (2001). The Men Who Made Gillingham Football Club. Stroud: Tempus Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0-7524-2243-X.

{{1994–95 in English football}}