1919–20 Gillingham F.C. season

Arthur Wood scored both goals in Gillingham's first home win of the season.

Gillingham's first match of the season was at their own home ground, Priestfield Road, against Watford, the Southern League champions in the final season before the war.[14] Tom Leslie and Jack Mahon were the only players in the Gillingham team who had represented the club before the hostilities.[15] The match ended in a 0–0 draw; the correspondent for The Daily Telegraph noted that Gillingham's forwards played well and that Watford had their full-backs to thank for the fact that Gillingham could not manage to score a goal.[14] Gillingham lost two days later away to Luton Town, but then gained their first win of the season, beating Swansea Town with a goal from W. Savage; Abel Lee, another pre-war Gillingham player, made his return in the victory.[16][17] The team followed this with a home win against Luton on 10 September; Wood scored both goals.[16][18] Following this game, Gillingham failed to score in their remaining four matches in September, which resulted in one draw and three defeats.[16] The run included a 5–0 loss away to Cardiff City, in which the Cardiff-based Western Mail contended that Gillingham's defence, prior to this game one of the best in the league, had experienced a "sensational collapse" and that the home team's goalkeeper was "practically a spectator".[19]

The team's run of consecutive defeats continued in October, with a 5–2 defeat away to Swindon Town and a 2–0 loss at home to Plymouth Argyle. Full-back Bill Cartwright made his debut against Swindon.[16] Gillingham ended their losing run with a 2–0 victory at home to Millwall on 11 October; Wood again scored twice. The Daily Herald's reporter praised Millwall's goalkeeper and said that the team were fortunate to concede only two goals.[20] Beale played his last game for the club in a 3–1 defeat away to Newport County on 25 October; over the next seven games, the team used four different goalkeepers, none of whom played more than twice.[16] Changes continued to be made to the team; forward Alex Redpath made his debut against Newport and half-back A. Harris and forwards Harry Dawson and C. Denny all played for the first time against Northampton Town on 8 November. Denny never made another appearance and Dawson and Harris both played only once more.[21]

Gillingham ended November with two more defeats, losing 4–1 to Crystal Palace and 5–0 to Norwich City; the Sunday Mercury said that in the former game Crystal Palace were "easily superior" and that in the latter Norwich "toyed with their opponents".[22][23] Another new forward, H. Kelly, debuted against Norwich, as did half-backs Alex Steel and Jimmy Kennedy, signed from Southend United and Watford respectively.[16][24] The team began December with two further defeats, losing 2–0 at home to Brentford and 4–0 away to Merthyr Town; Steel's brother Bobby, a new signing from Tottenham Hotspur,[25] made his debut in the latter game as the team's latest new forward.[16][26][27] Gillingham's final three league games of 1919 took place on consecutive days beginning on Christmas Day when they lost 2–1 at home to Reading. Against the same opponents the following day, goalkeeper Jack Branfield, who had played twice for Gillingham in 1915,[4] made his return as his team lost 3–0; he would remain first-choice goalkeeper for the remainder of the season, missing only one match.[16] The team's last league game of the year took place on 27 December and resulted in a 1–1 draw away to Bristol Rovers,[28] meaning that Gillingham had gone 11 league games without a victory.[16]

A cartoon printed in the Chatham Observer newspaper criticised Portsmouth's aggressive style of play in their goalless draw with Gillingham in March.

Gillingham played only two league games in January and their winless run continued as they lost away to Watford and Exeter City.[16] Following a goalless draw with Queens Park Rangers, Gillingham beat Swindon Town on 14 February to end a run of 14 league games without a victory stretching back to October; Harry Lee scored twice in the victory.[16][29] The team lost their next two games, away to Millwall and at home to Brighton & Hove Albion,[30][31] and ended February bottom of the league table, five points below 21st-placed Northampton. Gillingham's total of 18 goals scored in 28 games was by far the lowest in the division; no other team had scored fewer than 30.[32]

The team began March with a third consecutive defeat, losing 4–0 away to Newport County,[16] but then achieved a goalless draw at home to Portsmouth, who were top of the table; Branfield saved a Portsmouth penalty kick.[33] The Chatham Observer praised Abel Lee and the Steel brothers for keeping the Portsmouth forwards in check, and criticised the league leaders for their aggressive style of play.[34] The Weekly Dispatch described it as a "rough game" and said that at one point players came to blows.[33] Gillingham next played another team challenging for the league championship, Cardiff City, and after taking the lead after just two minutes went on to win 3–0,[35] only the second time during the season that they had scored three goals in a league game.[16] After two more defeats, Gillingham ended March with a 2–0 win over Southampton.[16] Full-back Jock Robertson made his debut in a 1–0 victory over Southend United on 3 April. He would go on to play for the club until 1933 and make over 350 appearances in the Football League after Gillingham joined that competition in 1920, setting a club record which would stand for over 30 years.[36]

Gillingham beat Norwich City and Brentford on 10 and 17 April respectively, the first time the team had won two consecutive games since the previous September.[16][37][38] Both Steel brothers, who had been regulars in the team since joining Gillingham, were absent from the team for the next game against Swansea Town;[16] despite having to play the whole of the second half with only ten men after one of their players was injured, Swansea won 1–0.[39] There were further changes to the team for the next game at home to Merthyr Town: half-back Joseph Griffiths made his debut and Len Ramsell played for the first time since January in place of Wood. Gillingham fell behind to a goal in the first half but scored three times to record their third victory in four games; the Western Mail stated that Merthyr were "very easily beaten".[16][40][41] The team's final match of the season was a 2–2 draw at home to Bristol Rovers.[42] Gillingham finished the season bottom of the league table; although they did not have the worst defence in the division, they had scored only 34 goals during the season, more than 10 fewer than any other team.[3] Such had been the turnover of players during the season that only Leslie and Mahon were in the team for both the first and last matches of the campaign.[16]

Key

Results[16]

Results[16]

• Bradley, Andy; Triggs, Roger (1994). Home of the Shouting Men: Complete History of Gillingham Football Club 1893–1993. Gillingham F.C. ISBN 978-0-9523361-0-5.
• Brown, Tony (2003). The Definitive Gillingham F.C.: A Complete Record. Soccerdata. ISBN 978-1-8994-6820-1.
• Conway, Tony (1980). The "Gills". Meresborough Books. ISBN 978-0-9052-7026-5.
• Elligate, David (2009). Gillingham FC On This Day. Pitch Publishing. ISBN 978-1-9054-1145-0.
• Joyce, Michael (2004). Football League Players' Records 1888 – 1939. Soccerdata. ISBN 978-1-89946-867-6.
• Mitchell, Colin; Reeves, Jon; Tyler, Daniel (2013). The History of English Football Clubs. New Holland Publishers. ISBN 978-1-78009-449-6.
• Riddoch, Andrew; Kemp, David (2010). When the Whistle Blows: The Story of the Footballers' Battalion in the Great War. Haynes Publishing. ISBN 978-0-85733-077-2.
• Soar, Phil; Tyler, Martin (1983). Encyclopedia of British Football. Collins Willow. ISBN 978-0-0021-8049-8.
• Triggs, Roger (1999). Images of England: Gillingham Football Club. Tempus Publishing. ISBN 978-0-75241-567-3.
• Triggs, Roger (2001). The Men Who Made Gillingham Football Club. Tempus Publishing. ISBN 978-0-75242-243-5.