During the 2002–03 English football season, Gillingham F.C. competed in the Football League First Division, the second tier of the English football league system. It was the 71st season in which Gillingham competed in the Football League, and the 53rd since the club was voted back into the league in 1950. It was Gillingham's third consecutive season in the second tier of the English football league system, to which the club had gained promotion for the first time in 2000.
Gillingham won their first three games of the season in August, which placed them first in the league table, but their form for the rest of 2002 was inconsistent and at the end of the calendar year they were in 13th place out of 24 teams. Marlon King, the team's top goalscorer during the previous season, missed the start of the campaign after being sent to prison; he returned to the team within days of his release in October and scored several important goals but then suffered a season-ending injury. Three wins in late February and early March took Gillingham up to 8th place, two places outside the play-offs for promotion to the Premier League, but the team could not improve on this position and ultimately ended the season in 11th place. This represented Gillingham's highest ever finish in the English league system.
Gillingham also competed in two knock-out tournaments. In the FA Cup, the team reached the fourth round but then lost to Leeds United of the Premier League in a replay after holding their opponents to a draw in the initial match. They were also eliminated from the Football League Cup by a Premier League team, losing to Chelsea in the third round. Gillingham played 52 competitive matches, winning 19, drawing 15, and losing 18. Paul Shaw was the team's top goalscorer with 12 goals. Chris Hope made the most appearances, playing in every one of the team's matches for the third consecutive season. The highest attendance recorded at the club's home ground, Priestfield Stadium, was 11,093 for the FA Cup match against Leeds on 25 January.
Background and pre-season
The 2002–03 season was Gillingham's 71st season playing in the Football League and the 53rd since the club was elected back into the League in 1950 after being voted out in 1938. In the 1999–2000 season, Gillingham beat Wigan Athletic in the Second Division play-off final to reach the second tier of the English football league system for the first time in the club's history. In the team's first season at this level, Gillingham were seen by pundits as likely to struggle in the First Division and potentially finish 22nd or lower out of 24 teams in the league table, which would result in relegation back to the third tier, but instead the team finished in 13th place. The following season, they improved on this performance, finishing in 12th place.
Andy Hessenthaler was the club's player-manager, a position he had held since 2000. Richard Hill, who had held the title of assistant manager during the previous season, was made joint head coach with Wayne Jones, whose job title had previously been first team coach. Both were not offered new long-term contracts but required to work on week-by-week contracts due to financial issues at the club linked to the collapse of ITV Digital and the resultant loss of the Football League's lucrative TV rights deal with the broadcaster. Shortly after the end of the previous season, Marlon King, Gillingham's top goalscorer during the 2001–02 campaign, was sentenced to 18 months in prison after being caught driving a stolen car the previous year. In his absence, Gillingham signed two experienced forwards on free transfers, 31-year-old Tommy Johnson from Kilmarnock and Rod Wallace, aged 32, from Bolton Wanderers. The club's chairman, Paul Scally, described the signing of Wallace, who had played at the highest level of football in both England and Scotland, as "the biggest acquisition the club has ever made". Days before the new season started, the club also signed another forward, 22-year-old Mamady Sidibé, who had been released by Swansea City at the end of the previous campaign; he was offered a contract after playing for Gillingham in pre-season friendly matches. Hessenthaler told the press: "We see him as the future because we've got a lot of players who are 30-plus and we need to start bringing a few younger ones in."
Gillingham's first-choice kit consisted of shirts, shorts, and socks all in the club's traditional blue; the second-choice kit, to be worn when there was a clash of colours with the opposition and Gillingham were the team required by the rules of the competition to change, was all-white. The team's pre-season games included one against Tottenham Hotspur of the Premier League during which Hessenthaler gave game time to over 20 players. Previewing the season, a writer for The Independent said of Gillingham's prospects that "finishing in the top half [of the league table] might be beyond them". A writer for The Guardian predicted the finishing position of every team in the division and contended that Gillingham would finish 18th.
First Division August–December Gillingham's first game of the season was away to Wimbledon on 10 August. The match drew an attendance of only 2,476, less than half that of any other league game which Gillingham played during the season, as Wimbledon's supporters almost totally boycotted the game in protest against a proposal by their team's owners to relocate the club to Milton Keynes. Both Wallace and Johnson were carrying injuries and Sidibé was chosen to partner Guy Ipoua in attack; Ipoua scored the only goal of the game to give Gillingham a 1–0 victory. Johnson made his debut as a substitute. The first game of the season at Gillingham's home ground, Priestfield Stadium, took place three days later and resulted in a second consecutive 1–0 win, a goal from Paul Shaw securing victory over Derby County, and a third 1–0 victory on 17 August against Millwall meant that Gillingham were the only team in the division to have won their first three games, putting them top of the table. After this strong start, however, the team would only win one of their next ten league games. After coming on as a substitute in every previous game, Johnson was included in the starting line-up for the first time in a 2–0 defeat to Leicester City on 31 August; Wallace made his first Gillingham appearance in the same game as a substitute but he picked up another injury and would be absent from the team for nearly a month.
After losing their first game of September to Portsmouth, Gillingham won a league match for the first time in nearly a month when they beat Brighton & Hove Albion 4–2 on 14 September despite finishing the game with nine players after both Mark Saunders and Kevin James were sent off, the latter for a second caution awarded for excessive celebrating after his goal. Four days later, however, Gillingham were heavily defeated, losing 4–1 to Nottingham Forest. Increasing numbers of injuries meant that Hessenthaler was forced to bring several players from the club's youth team into the squad for the game against Sheffield United on 21 September, which ended in a 1–1 draw. Wallace made his first appearance in the starting line-up in a 2–2 draw against Crystal Palace in the final match of September, as did Leon Johnson, a defender signed from Southend United. Jason Brown, the team's goalkeeper, went off injured and was replaced by Vince Bartram, who had been the team's first-choice starter in the position for nearly four seasons before losing his place to Brown in the latter part of the previous campaign. Wallace scored his first goal for Gillingham in a 1–1 draw away to Rotherham United on 12 October, but after that game he would again be out of the team for six weeks. Sidibé returned to the team against Watford on 19 October after over a month out of action and scored a goal within two minutes. Gillingham won 3–0, their first victory in over a month, which moved them up from 13th to 11th in the table.
On 26 October, Gillingham played away to Ipswich Town. King, who had been released from prison just three days earlier after the length of his sentence was reduced following an appeal, was named as a substitute, and took the field during the second half. Sidibé scored to give Gillingham a 1–0 victory which left them in 9th place in the table. Three days later, Gillingham lost 4–0 at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers in a hot-tempered match in which several players were cautioned and Gillingham's Nyron Nosworthy was sent off. Gillingham played five First Division matches in November and failed to record any victories. A goal from Saunders in the 89th minute of the game salvaged a draw away to 23rd-placed Grimsby Town on 2 November, but Gillingham then lost 1–0 at home to Reading, and conceded a 90th-minute equaliser after leading 1–0 for most of the game against Sheffield Wednesday; Hessenthaler was sent off in the latter game. Gillingham lost 1–0 away to Walsall on 23 November, and ended the month with a 1–1 draw against Stoke City; the result meant that they had gone six league games without a win and had slipped to 17th place in the table. Nicky Southall, who had left Gillingham in 2001 to join Bolton Wanderers of the Premier League, made his second debut for Gillingham against Bradford City on 7 December having rejoined the club. King scored twice in a 3–1 victory, Gillingham's first win since 19 October. It was the first of a run of three consecutive victories as Gillingham won 2–0 away to Sheffield Wednesday a week later and then beat Burnley 4–2 at Priestfield on 22 December despite having only 16 fit players from which to select the starting line-up and substitutes. Wallace scored in all three games; the matches against Sheffield Wednesday and Burnley marked the first time he had started two consecutive games all season. A draw against Millwall on 26 December meant that at the end of 2002, Gillingham were in 13th place in the league table.
January–May
Gillingham had originally been scheduled to begin 2003 with a home game against Norwich City on 1 January, but it was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch, and so the team's first league game of the calendar year was ten days later away to Derby County. Ipoua scored for Gillingham but Derby equalised and the game ended in a draw, which BBC Sport's report said was a fair result. King suffered a knee injury, and would not play again during the season. A week later, Gillingham played Leicester City, who were second in the table going into the game. A goal from Shaw and an opponent's own goal gave Gillingham a 2–0 lead at half-time but Leicester scored twice after the interval to bring the scores level. In the final five minutes of the game, Wallace set up Sidibé to score and give Gillingham the victory. The team's seven-game unbeaten run in the league ended on 1 February with a 3–0 defeat to Preston North End, who had not won in their preceding six league games, and this was followed by a 2–1 defeat to Reading which meant that Gillingham were again 17th in the table.