Just wanted to know why Gills fans hate Swindon. I have heard at previous games that I have been to and heard fans singing it again at Oxford on Saturday.
If you search the forums you will find the aggro with Swindon during the late 70's. Its too lengthy to expand on here,suffice to say,football fans have notoriously long memories.I expect BRB or someone will post a link to it. And now we see on Meridian that they've been banned for making any signings because of the fair play regulations. De Canio won't be happy about that.
Agree vinney. I'm to old for any grudges now but can remember some bad blood between us and the Swine. One occasion still in my mind was late 70's early 80's (I think) going to Swindon as a young man and it all kicked off, when some of their lot decided to get in with the Gills fans. As it goes I never was one for running away and stood my ground, which then a few of them bottled it not expecting that to happen then the old bill just piled in. I can't be sure because memory is so bad these days, I can't even remember the year but I think one of our coaches might have even got attacked on the way back (could be wrong), obviously not the coach I was on. Obviously there are some well known stories if you google them but that was just one of my personal experiences with them.
That question was dealt with in the Oxford United programme last Saturday. It also seems they found that no-one counts Gills as main rivals or enemies, but that a number of clubs don't like the Swine at all. Troubles included - twice a Swindon player got one of ours sent off, ref punched out by Gills fan, players fight in tunnel, some swine put in hospital, gills players in court for assault, and later play-off bad blood. Nothing really.........
And year on year our fans coaches getting 'bricked' at the Magic Roundabout Although that would have happened to every opposing teams coaches. The player involved in the send-offs, Ray McHale. Every Gills fan of a certain age, shall we say, disliked him
Here you are Bernadettec. I dug this link out,although its from a Swindon perspective http://www.swindon-town-fc.co.uk/HeadToHead.asp?Team=Gillingham
Actually a pretty decent article that. As for the play-off defeat. When you consider we would have won if away goals counted double (as they did in the semi) and also, that Swindon side under Macari got punished severely a few seasons later for financial irregularities dating back to the seasons mentioned here. Plenty of reasons for a 'rivalry' to flourish, even if not so much nowadays.
A friend of mine went down to Swindon for the game that ended with a punch up in the tunnel. I remember he told me Gills fans, escorted by police, were marched round the pitch to the exits while the crowd chanted "Animals! Animals!" at them. They were stopped by a police officer as they left the car park, who took delight in saying "We have just arrested two of your players" ...............
All that happened 78-79 season I think .... A year before I started going and I'm 43 !!! I do remember intense rivalry in the old days but I guess most people won't really know why or care anymore. Possibly one of the things that drove the Gills side of of things is we considered ourselves cheated of a whats now championship place by Swindon and of course at that time Gills had never seen such lofty heights which added to the frustration I suppose.....Still dont like em tho
Yeah, and I think your 'dislike' of them easily outweighs our 'dislike' of them How many times have we played Oxford and a rendition of "Stand up if you hate Swindon" has seen all 4 sides stand up Still my only winning memory at the County ground (and therefore the best memory) was when Micky Adams scored after 3 mins in a 1-0 win and that season they were ultimately relegated. Mid 80's iirc. Think we got bricked that day too
All well said so far, it is a very old rivalry. Not too much has really happened of late (drubbing them 5-0 at home angered a lot of them!) I quite like having a rival, every football team should have a team they really don't like and I don't like Swindon, that's not to say I want to see fighting in the stands or outside the ground ever but it is fun when they come to town to feel the buildup in the air and even more when we beat them!
