Bring on the big boys!

Saturday 23rd May 2009 will become another glorious day in the folklore of Gillingham Football Club. Yesterday, for the third time in ten years, the Gills went to Wembley to contest a promotion play off place.

I was in the crowd in 1999 when we lost on penalties to Manchester City, after being 3-1 up with only a few minutes of normal time to play. Losing in such circumstances was gut-wrenching. But we bounced back.

The Gills were back at Wembley the following year and I was again in the crowd to see them beat Wigan Athletic (whatever happened to them…?) 3-2 in extra time to win promotion to what was then the First Division for the very first time.

Yesterday, because of election commitments, I was not able to join the 30,000 Gills supporters who were at Wembley to cheer on the team against Shrewsbury Town. However, I was able to steal a couple of hours from campaigning to join Louise in the Garden where we listened to the match on BBC Radio Kent.

It was nail biting stuff. With a minute of normal time to go the score was 0-0 and extra time looked inevitable. Preparing ourselves for an extra 30 minutes I nipped inside quickly to put the kettle on, only to discover on my return a few seconds later that Simeon Jackson had just scored! 1-0 and I had missed the goal!

Still, despite missing the only goal of the game, there was a smile on my face for the rest of the evening because next season, instead of hosting the likes of Accrington Stanley, Torquay and Burton Albion, we will be watching the Gills play Leeds, Norwich, Southampton and, of course our local rivals, Charlton Athletic. I can’t wait!

Added 24.05.09