Gillingham FC - The Only Football League Team In Kent

[FM_TNSSO]

Before I start with my new story below, I should probably explain what has happened to my most recent journeyman save/story first. Anyone that has been following the forum will see that I am also running this year's chairman game at the moment...well I was flicking between the saves and have accidentally written over my journeyman save file, with that of the chairman game (I clicked to load the new game and didn't realise it was doing a save first before the load). Luckily it was this way round and not me overwriting the chairman game or I might have a lot of ****** off players on my hands! However, what it does mean is that I needed to start to a new game and here is the story to coincide...

GILLINGHAM FOOTBALL CLUB - THE ONLY FOOTBALL LEAGUE TEAM IN KENT

That's right guys, I'm going to do a save with my beloved Gills. Having been born in Chatham and spent the early years of my life living in Gillingham, it is my home town club and I've been going to home and away games for 6 years now, although I have missed most of this season due to my kids commitments and the current fan boycott of the ownership of the club!

Considering I'm a fan, its actually quite surprising that I've never actually done a Gills save, so it's something I'm pretty excited about and looking forward to seeing how far I can take the mighty Gillingham in English and maybe even European football one day (I can dream right?!). So who are Gillingham FC...well as the title suggests, we are the only Kent based football team in the English Football League...although the likes of Maidstone, Ebbsfleet and Dover all sit in the higher divisions of non league football so we're not entirely sure how much longer we'll be able to hold onto this claim!

Now it's quite a special year for the Kent club this season, with it being the 125th year since the club was established in 1893! And to commemorate that we have a special anniversary third kit!

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Anyone that is remotely familiar with Gillingham FC will also be aware of our previous affiliation with MEMS as our sponsors, and the stadium previously being known as MEMS Priestfield Stadium. However, that is something that has now come to an end, with Medway Council now taking over as the club's sponsor in the Summer of 2018 and the stadium being renamed Medway Priestfield. It was a bit of an odd deal which had plenty of fans asking questions, as the Council are apparently not paying any sponsorship money to the club!!

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It's safe to say that the club have one of the worst away ends in English football....it's pretty much temporary scaffolding holding it up and the away fans can certainly expect to get drenched if it's raining! This is something I'll be trying to encourage the owner to improve during my time here.

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Now us fans have been promised new investment and a potential new stadium for a number of years now from our owner, Paul Scally! However, with nothing coming to fruition, many fans have become frustrated and this season has seen protests, banners etc starting to appear at games in an effort to force some change. Don't get me wrong, it's not got anywhere near the level of Blackpool or Charlton yet, but it's gathering support pretty fast. It'll be interesting to see if anything materialises under my FM management of the club! Hopefully I can give the fans what they want...even if it is only in fantasy!

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My goal here is obviously to take the Gills as far as possible, hopefully see us into a new stadium, hopefully see in and survive a new owner at the club! I will look to improve the facilities at the club in a bid to bring through some decent youth during my time here, as we are club who work to some pretty tight transfer and wage budgets so high profile signings are highly unlikely in my first 2-3 seasons here at least! So what are we waiting for...let's get started! Hope you enjoy reading about it as much as I'm sure I will enjoy playing it!


​

 

[FM_TNSSO]

June 2018

This man, Andy Hessenthaler, is nothing short of a Gillingham legend! Not only was he our record signing (£235k) when he joined the club in 1996, he made over 300 appearances for the club as a player and he has managed The Gills on no less than 3 occasions!

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June 2018

Paul Scally has outlined his expectations for my first season in charge and a top half finish seems optimistic to me in the league and the pressure will really be on to deliver!

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THE SQUAD

Goalkeepers

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There's no doubt that Tomas Holy is one of the best keepers in the division and has been linked with the likes of Arsenal over the past 12 months! It may be tough to keep hold of him with Derby currently sniffing around, but all the time he has between the sticks I can have confidence in my goalie! The other two are young and coming through and Catherall is likely to be sent out on loan this season or play reserve football.

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Defenders

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We've got a lot of defenders in the squad, but a few of the youngsters like Divine, O'Mara, Tucker, Huckle and Simpson will all be made available for loan immediately. Zakuani and Ehmer are a pretty solid centre back pairing for League One level and keeping them both fit throughout the season will be absolutely key to our success. Luke O'Neill is a very good full back at this level, while Bradley Garmston adds loads of pace down the left side, although the defensive side of his game is a little suspect.

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Midfielders

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We're struggling for real quality in the midfield positions and this is the area I will immediately need to look to improve! There's some young players coming through, but are still some way off first team level and it's likely a couple of these will also be sent out on loan. Our best midfielder, Dean Parrett will miss the opening 3 months of the season through injury, but could be key once he returns to the squad!

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Strikers

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It says a lot for our strikeforce when you think that in real life, we've just released Liam Nash, Josh Parker and Conor Wilkinson. Immediately, I can see that we're going to be heavily reliant on Tom Eaves to get us goals (just as we are in real life), but I'll be needing to strengthen our attackers pretty quickly if we're going to grab enough goals to meet Scally's expectation of a top half finish!

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The team report highlights what I've said above. We are lacking quality in the left back and wide midfield areas. I'm not convinced by the fact my assistant rates Josh Parker up front as a 'great' option either!

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Despite having nearly £2 million in the bank, it's no surprise that Mr Scally gives me a measley £25k to spend in the transfer market. On the plus side, there is £2,500 in the wage budget which should allow me to bring in 1 or 2 new faces.

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I'll be back at the end of July with another update, once we've been through our pre season. Hopefully there will be plenty of positive results to report with most of our friendlies against lower league opposition, and maybe a couple of new signings!

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[UpTheRobins]

Good luck

I always enjoy your stories, mate. Which skin is that btw?

 

[FM_TNSSO]

I always enjoy your stories, mate. Which skin is that btw?

Cheers mate....it's the FLUT Dark skin

 

[BJT]

Best of luck with this save! Definitely be following, especially being from Chatham myself

 

[FM_TNSSO]

July 2018

Hardly a Gillingham legend, but certainly one of my favourite players to put on the Gills shirt in recent years is the beast that is Adebayo Akinfenwa! During two stints with the club, he made over 80 appearances for the club, scoring 21 goals!

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July 2018

Pre season started off well with 5 wins in a row, in which we scored an incredible 22 goals (without our best striker Eaves who is out injured). The loss to Arsenal was to be expected, but it was disappointing to end the pre season campaign with defeat to lower league Crawley town and I hope that doesn't dent the lads confidence going into the first game of the season!

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With a severe lack of quality out in the attacking wide positions, it left me no real option than to go with a very narrow formation concentrating the play through the middle of the park. We will utilise our attacking full backs to the best of their ability to add some threat from the wide areas, but it's our work rate in the middle of the park that will win us games this season!

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Player of Pre Season
Josh Parker

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7 goals in 6 games for Josh during pre season is a good return and I hope he can continue this level of form into the competitive matches against better opposition!

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We haven't been able to give the likes of Tom Eaves, Elliott List, Josh Rees or Dean Parrett any game time during pre season and will have to take our time nurturing them back to fitness carefully when they return during the early months of the season!

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With little funds available and a chairman who doesn't like to fork out much money, it seemed the logical thing to ask him to go find me a senior affiliate so we can hopefully get some decent loan players in without it costing us anything. He actually did a decent job and offered up both Newcastle and Manchester City, and I opted for the former as they had more loanee options that would be willing to play for us!

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Big Zak at the back gets the captain's armband for the upcoming season, with Mark Byrne as his number 2!

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With no funds available to make some permanent transfers, I turned to the loan market and managed to make 3 really good additions to the squad who are all likely to feature this season! Both Brendan Galloway and Beni Baningime join from Everton and will bolster our defensive options significantly!

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Freddie Woodman also comes in on loan for the season from Newcastle and will push Tomas Holy in goal for his starting place!

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[FM_TNSSO]

August 2018

Do you recognise this man? Yes, it's Tony Pulis...one of the best managers we ever had at the Gills. Between 1995 and 1999, Pulis managed the club in over 200 games with a win ratio of 43%. It was Pulis who led us to the infamous playoff final where we were 2-0 up against Manchester City with 2 minutes remaining...and we went on to lose the game on penalties! Pulis left the club under a bit of a cloud and there were accusations and lawsuits a plenty to follow his dismissal after that final!

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August 2018

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The League One season preview shows that the bookies expect us to be in and around mid table, with odds of 40-1 to win the title. It's no surprise to see Sunderland as the title favourites, with them being the biggest club in this division by far! We have no players making the media dream 11 this year, and it's Tomas Holy and new loanee, Beni Baningime, that are seen as our key players for the upcoming season!

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The chairman has given me some pretty tough targets this year in all honesty. A top half finish is required in the league whilst he is looking for some level of progression throughout all of the cup competitions as well....I was kind of hoping he'd tell me not to worry about the Checkatrade but nope, he wants us through the group stages in that as well!

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Sky Bet League One
Matchday 1 - Accrington Stanley (Home)

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We knew our problems were going to lie up front this season and this first game proved it! No problem dominating the game against the newly promoted Accrington and no problem creating chances...but we struggled to put them away and have to settle for a poor point at home against one of the weaker teams in the division!

Sky Bet League One
Matchday 2 - Burton Albion (Away)

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A good draw away from home against one of the relegated sides from last season! Especially as we went down to ten men when Mark Byrne was sent off for an awful challenge (and consequently fined 2 weeks wages after the game).

Sky Bet League One
Matchday 3 - Peterborough United (Home)

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When Peterborough were 3-0 up on the hour mark, I wondered how many they were going to score as our defence looked a shambles! But it was only at that point that we actually woke up and funnily enough, we dominated the final half hour! Tom Eaves came off the bench for his first goal of the season with a header from a corner, but the damage was already done!

Carabao Cup
1st Round - Colchester United (Home)

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My first win as Gills manager comes in the Carabao Cup with a new formation in place. It is much more defensive and it did the trick as we keep a clean sheet, meaning a single goal from Josh Parker was enough to see us into the 2nd round.

A tough away day at Middlesbrough awaits us in the 2nd round!

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Sky Bet League One
Matchday 4 - Doncaster Rovers (Away)

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We followed up our win in the cup, with our first league win away at Donny. Young Darren Oldaker's superb free kick grabbed us all 3 points today - a lad that a lot of the Gills fans feel should be getting more first team opportunities in real life!

Sky Bet League One
Matchday 5 - Shrewsbury Town (Away)

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A very even game and another draw which was probably a fair result for both sides on the day!

Sky Bet League One
Matchday 6 - Oxford United (Home)

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Oxford came into this game top of the league having not lost any of their opening 5 games, so in retrospect, this was a good point for us! Elliott List came off the bench and missed a couple of good chances late on which would have won us the game, but I can't be too harsh on the lad as it was his first appearance this season following injury and he doesn't have any match sharpness back yet!

Carabao Cup
2nd Round - Middlesbrough (Away)

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Well, would you look at that! We only went away to Middlesbrough and won!! And not only did we win, but when Billy Bingham hammered home our late winner, it was fully deserved as well as we'd been the better side across the 90 minutes!

Our reward for beating Borough is another away tie to Championship opposition in the next round!

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OTHER NEWS

Just over 2000 season tickets have been sold this season!

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We were handed an interesting group in the Checkatrade Trophy this season. Not only will we play Chelsea's youngsters, but we have also been drawn against our bitterest rivals, Swindon Town!

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No less than 5 youngsters were sent out on loan before the transfer window closed, although there were no new arrivals this month.

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MANAGER'S DIARY

It's always weird to know how to feel after a start like ours in the league...I mean on the one hand I'm chuffed as we've only lost one of our opening six games, but then I'm disappointed because we've only won 1 as well! What I am well pleased about though is that win over Middlesbrough and that can only boost the lad's confidence going into next month!


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[FM_TNSSO]

September 2018

Jim Stannard, affectionately known as Big Fat Jim, was a Gills goalkeeper between 1995 and 1999, making over 100 appearances for the club! During his first season between the sticks, he conceded a record low of 20 goals in 46 league games and was instrumental in Gillingham's promotion!

September 2018

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Sky Bet League One
Matchday 7 - Charlton Athletic (Away)

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Believe it or not, we were the better side here and didn't deserve to be on the end of a 3-1 defeat. However, Lyle Taylor was on absolute fire for them and basically scored with every chance he had!


Checkatrade Trophy Group C
Matchday 1 - Chelsea U23s (Home)

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A poor display from us against the Chelsea youngsters...I checked out a few of their players before kick off and there wasn't much quality there if I'm honest and we should have won this game!


Sky Bet League One
Matchday 8 - Bristol Rovers (Home)

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Another new formation for this one with a 4-1-2-3 wide tried. It worked a treat as we dominated the game and really should have had 3 or 4 goals. On the day though, the single strike from Nav was enough for the 3 points!


Sky Bet League One
Matchday 9 - Luton Town (Away)

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A bad result for us but not a bad performance. We played pretty well, but Luton scored two bangers and we hit the woodwork twice so luck wasn't really on our side here!


Sky Bet League One
Matchday 10 - Fleetwood Town (Home)

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No excuses here...we simply weren't good enough!


Carabao Cup
3rd Round - Leeds United (Away)

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Unbelievable...we're pretty ***** in the league at the moment, but we can go away at these big Championship clubs and win in the cup! This was a bit of a smash and grab in all fairness with Leeds being the much better side, but we march on to the 4th round nonetheless!


Another away draw in the 4th round for us as we go to Premier League Bournemouth!

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Sky Bet League One
Matchday 11 - Southend United (Away)

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Another game where we weren't all that great but ****** a point away at Southend thanks to Darren Oldaker's smashing strike from outside the box!

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MANAGER'S DIARY

It's been tough going this month as I've tinkered with formations and player roles to try to find something that plays to our strengths. I'm still not there yet although the performances don't necessarily reflect our results and I genuinely feel like we're only a couple of minor tweaks away from it all clicking into place and going on a little run to boost up the table! Or at least I hope we are, or my job could come into question in the very near future!
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[FM_TNSSO]

SACKED!!!

Well that lasted long!! After just a few months in charge, Scally (I've always thought he was a ******) sacked me with us sitting 23rd in the league. I went into October feeling optimistic, but in fact we were ****** awful and recorded another 4 straight losses in the league, the worst being a 5-0 thumping from bottom of the table Bradford, which turned out to be the last straw for the board who immediately relieved me from my duties after the game!

There's nothing worse than being sacked off by the team you love in real life and the idea of taking over Gillingham again any time soon is not one that appeals to me right now! All I can say is I have a new found respect for what our manager, Steve Lovell, is up against and achieving in the real world!

So this story respectfully has to come to an end, seeing as it was solely focused around me building a career around the Gills...can't help but laugh at the fact it lasted all of 4 1/2 months!

I will kick off a new story in a bit, just trying to decide who to be and what to do!

 

[BJT]

******, it looked like you were doing a good job to me...where were the Gills expected to finish?

 

[FM_TNSSO]

******, it looked like you were doing a good job to me...where were the Gills expected to finish?

I was expected mid table with the bookies, but the board wanted top half so based on that I was massively underachieving, but it's always a ******* when you're not even given half a season to get your team right!! But the game's expectations Gillingham are way to high this season as we are relegation battlers with our current squad and budgets at best!

 

[BJT]

I know the feeling...in another game I got sacked as WBA manager. Was in the playoffs but the one week I fell outside I got the sack. Thing was I knew what was wrong, so I invested in the Mid-season window but I was sacked that week later! Dwight Gayle missed around 6 penalties up to that point and scored only one and his finishing in normal game was shocking.