Does anyone have memories of Xmas games / incidents in years gone by? Such as our former manager Keith 'Football should be Fun' Peacock returning with his Maidstone team to a warm personal welcome from the Gills crowd on Boxing Day 1989. As I remember, he reciprocated by throwing Christmas presents in to the home terraces. Christmas Greetings to all Not 606 members from the Island of Cyprus.
Gillingham v Northampton Town 27th December 1993...It was a 3 o'clock kick off, but the floodlights I believe had been set for an evening kick off? The game didnt kick off in the end until 3.45!! Gillingham won 1-0!!
Thoughts go back to my first Christmas game ever which was in 1974, I thought it was a Boxing Day, however, it appears after a quick bit of research it was the 28th December. Not that I ever actually remember the game itself as a young lad but all the events before and after. I can remember queuing in Priestfield Road outside the ticket office for an all ticket affair against Crystal Palace. You have to remember that all ticket games were unusual back them in days, everything was normally pay at the turnstile but we had not faced Palace since 1961 so a packed house was expected. Don't have a clue how much I paid for my ticket, probably a matter of pence but I duly walked away a proud lad after making my purchase with all the grown ups around me. My dad was never a football fan so I had to learn at an early age to fend for myself to follow my passion, although my friend and his family had sort of taken me under their wing of adult protection during games. The game was to be more attractive for the flamboyant character of Malcolm Allison...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_Allison - I still remember to this day the trilby and that big coat, from the cigar smoking personality, the following picture is obviously not from the day but to give our younger members some idea of the character: please log in to view this image Now regardless of what people's views were or are of the LATE Malcolm Allison, he was like any other football character of today, who was impressionable on a young mind. Who was this guy that came over to Town End to stir up the Palace fans who I was duly standing in front of! The sway of all terrace affairs and not being fully aware of the dangers behind me if things turned unsavoury but who worries about that as a young lad. We had over 13,000 in Priestfield that day and sometimes I wonder if it would have been more if there had been a pay on the day option, maybe there was. As I said earlier I cannot remember much about the game and further research might bring memories flooding back but all that is important is that we won the third division game 3-1 and that was probably the highlight of my entire Christmas and particularly remembering it being so nice to silence the chants of Eagles, Eagles in all their vibrant colour.
Boxing Day 1972 - one of my first away matches - when you could take alcohol on coaches. Traffic was murder - took ages to get to Hampshire - plenty of time to drink - hence I don't remember much about the match - and there were no goals to see - and more drinking on the journey home - blotto <hic>
Thanks guys for your tales of Christmas Past. BRB's pic. of Malcom Allison brought back lots of memories. Big Mal was indeed a very naughty boy, so much so he would make Mad Dog seem like the Archbishop of Canterbury in comparison. On Boxing Day 1969 I took my then girlfriend to watch Gills v Fulham. To protect her ears from the 'uncoof yoofs' at the Rainham End where I usually stood, I booked two seats in the old Gordon Road Stand. The old GRS had no proper seats in those days, only long wooden benches with numbers stamped on them. Your back rest was the person behind's knees ! When we found our spot in the sunless GRS, our seats were still half covered in ice. As she was wearing a mini skirt and sling backs, she was not a happy bunny girl. She must have eventually forgiven me, because we got married one year later.However, to this day she has never again set foot in Priestfield or any other football ground for that matter!
Boxing Day (i think) 2003. Gills at home to table-topping Portsmouth, who boasted a youthful, free-scoring Peter Crouch. Chris Hope marked him out of the game that day, and we won 2-0 Memory a little hazy, I think David Perpetuini scored one of our goals
