During the 1991–92 English football season, Gillingham F.C. competed in the Football League Fourth Division, the fourth tier of the English football league system. It was the 60th season in which Gillingham competed in the Football League, and the 42nd since the club was voted back into the league in 1950. The team began the season with a 4–0 victory over Scunthorpe United but their form was inconsistent; not until February did they manage to win two consecutive league games. After a season spent largely in the middle of the league table, Gillingham finished 11th out of 22 teams in the Fourth Division.
Gillingham also competed in three knock-out competitions. The team were eliminated in the first round of both the FA Cup and Football League Cup. Gillingham progressed from the initial group stage of the Associate Members' Cup but lost in the first round proper. The team played a total of 51 competitive matches, winning 17, drawing 14 and losing 20, although a win and a draw were expunged when Aldershot were expelled from the Football League in March. David Crown was the team's top goalscorer, with 22 in the Fourth Division and 24 in all competitions, not including an expunged goal. Paul Clark and Steve Lovell made the most appearances, playing in every game. The highest attendance recorded at the club's home ground, Priestfield Stadium, was 7,328, for a game against Brentford in the FA Cup.
Background and pre-season The 1991–92 season was Gillingham's 60th season playing in the Football League and the 42nd since the club was elected back into the League in 1950 after being voted out in 1938. It was the club's third consecutive season in the Football League Fourth Division, the fourth tier of the English football league system. In the previous two seasons since being relegated from the Third Division, Gillingham had finished 14th and 15th out of 24 teams. In the 1991–92 season, the Fourth Division unusually had an odd number of teams due to league expansion and re-organisation, beginning the season with 23 members.
At the start of the season, Damien Richardson was the club's manager, a post he had held since April1989. His assistant manager was fellow former Gillingham player Ron Hillyard, and Alan Walker was the team captain. Richardson signed two veteran players, both aged 32, prior to the start of the season. Karl Elsey, a midfielder who had played for Gillingham between 1985 and 1988, returned to the club on a free transfer from fellow Fourth Division team Maidstone United. Paul Clark, a defender who had played nearly 400 Football League matches, also arrived without a transfer fee, having been released by Southend United of the Second Division.
The club adopted a new kit design in its traditional colours of blue and white; the shirts were plain blue, replacing the previous season's unusual design featuring diagonal white stripes, and were worn with white shorts and socks. The away kit, to be worn in the event of a clash of colours with the home team, featured black and white stripes, the first-choice colours worn when the club was formed in 1893. The team prepared for the new season with a number of friendly matches, including a 4–1 victory over a West Ham United team which included a mix of the First Division team's regular starters and reserves. Three days later, Steve Russell, goalkeeper for Gillingham's youth team, found himself in the unusual position of playing two complete games in one day; having played for the youth team in the morning, he was selected for the first team against Dover Athletic in the afternoon after Harvey Lim failed a last-minute fitness test.
Fourth Division August–December
Gillingham's first match of the season was at their home ground, Priestfield Stadium, against Scunthorpe United; Elsey and Clark both made their debut and Elsey scored the opening goal in a 4–0 victory. After a draw away to York City and a weekend with no scheduled game due to the uneven number of teams in the division, Gillingham lost for the first time in the league with a 2–0 defeat away to Hereford United on 4 September, finishing the game with ten men after Lee Palmer was sent off. Gillingham defeated Scarborough 2–0 on 7 September with two goals in the last six minutes of the game, after which they were 10th in the league table, but then gained only one point from the next five games to slip to 19th. The run included defeats to Wrexham, Blackpool, Crewe Alexandra and Chesterfield, although they were able to hold second-placed Barnet to a 3–3 draw. The performances of Lim in particular were questioned, so Richardson signed goalkeeper Keith Branagan on loan from Millwall, but Branagan was injured in a reserve team game and only played one match for the first team before returning to his parent club.
Gillingham ended their winless league run on 12 October, beating Halifax Town 3–0; David Crown scored twice. Two weeks later Crown scored the team's first hat-trick of the season as they beat Northampton Town 3–1 at Priestfield; midfielder Neil Smith, recently signed on loan from Tottenham Hotspur, made his debut. After impressing with his performances during the loan spell, he joined the club on a permanent basis for a transfer fee of , which was reported to have been financed by the payment which the club received from Sky Sports after one of Gillingham's games was broadcast live.
Gillingham extended their unbeaten league run to six games with draws against Carlisle United, Cardiff City and Maidstone United, after which they were 13th in the table. The game against Maidstone, Gillingham's local rivals, drew an attendance of 6,716, Gillingham's largest home crowd of the season for a Fourth Division match. The team's unbeaten run came to an end with a 4–3 defeat away to Mansfield Town on 23 November. Gillingham defeated Aldershot 3–1 on 30 November, ending a run of seven games without a win in all competitions, and then drew twice more, against Rotherham United and York City. Crown scored in all three matches to take his total of league goals for the season so far to 13, nearly half the total scored by the entire team. The team's final match of 1991 was on 26 December against the same opponents they had faced in the first game of the season, Scunthorpe United; Gillingham lost 2–0, which left them 15th in the league table.
January–May
Gillingham began the new year with a 2–1 victory at home to Hereford United on 1 January. The team beat Walsall 4–0 on 11 January, Crown scoring his second hat-trick of the season, but then conceded four in a defeat to promotion-chasing Burnley. A win over Doncaster Rovers on 1 February left Gillingham 13th in the table. On 15 February, the team followed two consecutive goalless draws by beating Rotherham United, who were fifth in the table, 5–1 at Priestfield; Steve Lovell scored the team's third hat-trick of the season. It was the first time that Gillingham had scored five goals in a game since September 1989. A week later, Gillingham won 1–0 away to Walsall, the first time during the season that the team had won two consecutive league matches, however their unbeaten league run ended with a 3–1 defeat at home to Lincoln City on 29 February.
On 3 March, Gillingham achieved a 3–0 victory over Burnley, who had not lost for seven games and would go on to win the Fourth Division championship; Crown scored the first goal, the first of four consecutive league games in which he scored. A week later, defender Richard Green, recently signed on loan from Swindon Town, scored twice on his Gillingham debut as the team defeated Cardiff City 3–2 at Ninian Park. It would prove to be Gillingham's final league win away from home until October 1993, a run of 30 consecutive away league games without a victory. The team failed to win in the next three games but ended the month with consecutive home victories over Mansfield Town and Wrexham, which took them up to 10th in the league table. Another loan signing, Watford's Rod Thomas, made his debut against Mansfield. Three days before that game, Aldershot were expelled from the Football League after the club went into liquidation; all their results up to that point in the season were expunged from the league table, meaning that Gillingham lost the four points they had acquired from a win and a draw against Aldershot.
On 11 April, Gillingham defeated Blackpool 3–2 at Priestfield despite finishing the game with nine players. Both Crown and Lim were sent off, leading to defender Joe Dunne taking over in goal; Dunne was selected because he had played Gaelic football as a youth in his native Ireland, which Richardson felt would help with his ability to catch and handle the ball. It was the team's only win in five matches played in April, during which they lost away to Scarborough and Barnet and at home to Crewe Alexandra. Gillingham's final match of the season was at home to Halifax Town. Lovell, who had scored only four league goals before Christmas, scored twice in a 2–0 victory, giving him seven in the last nine games of the season and a total of sixteen for the season. His second goal against Halifax was his 100th for the club. Gillingham finished 11th out of 22 remaining teams in the Fourth Division, 12 points below the promotion play-off places; a review of the season published in the Rothmans Football Yearbook stated that "Gillingham's consistency was simply one of being an average team in the middle of the table".
Match details Key
In result column, Gillingham's score shown first H = Home match A = Away match
pen. = Penalty kick o.g. = Own goal
Results DateOpponentsResultGoalscorersAttendance17 August 1991Scunthorpe United (H)4–0Elsey, Crown, O'Connor, Beadle3,48024 August 1991York City (A)1–1Crown2,3244 September 1991Hereford United (A)0–22,5447 September 1991Scarborough (H)2–0Arnott, Lovell3,37514 September 1991Wrexham (A)1–2Elsey1,60217 September 1991Blackpool (A)0–23,03521 September 1991Barnet (H)3–3Eeles, Crown (2)4,86428 September 1991Crewe Alexandra (A)1–2Trusson (pen.)3,1265 October 1991Chesterfield (H)0–12,83512 October 1991Halifax Town (A)3–0Crown (2), Beadle1,43519 October 1991Doncaster Rovers (A)1–1Lovell1,46826 October 1991Northampton Town (H)3–1Crown (3)2,5442 November 1991Carlisle United (A)0–01,6725 November 1991Cardiff City (H)0–02,6419 November 1991Maidstone United (H)1–1O'Connor6,71623 November 1991Mansfield Town (A)3–4Lovell, Crown, Arnott3,28730 November 1991Aldershot (H)3–1Crown, Arnott, Smith2,56614 December 1991Rotherham United (A)1–1Crown3,13721 December 1991York City (H)1–1Crown2,71126 December 1991Scunthorpe United (A)0–23,8831 January 1992Hereford United (H)2–1Lovell, Smith3,3924 January 1992Lincoln City (A)0–12,16911 January 1992Walsall (H)4–0Crown (3), Elsey2,71518 January 1992Burnley (A)1–4Walker8,9081 February 1992Doncaster Rovers (H)2–1Smith, O'Connor2,3668 February 1992Northampton Town (A)0–03,00711 February 1992Aldershot (A)0–02,98615 February 1992Rotherham United (H)5–1Lovell (3), Dempsey, Crown2,48622 February 1992Walsall (A)1–0Dempsey2,98729 February 1992Lincoln City (H)1–3Lovell3,1603 March 1992Burnley (H)3–0Crown, Beadle, Lovell3,7297 March 1992Rochdale (A)1–2Crown1,94110 March 1992Cardiff City (A)3–2Green (2), Crown8,52114 March 1992Carlisle United (H)1–2Crown2,78917 March 1992Rochdale (H)0–02,32221 March 1992Maidstone United (A)1–1Lovell3,26428 March 1992Mansfield Town (H)2–0Lovell, Beadle2,68231 March 1992Wrexham (H)2–1Lovell (pen.), Green3,0784 April 1992Scarborough (A)1–2Crown1,17411 April 1992Blackpool (H)3–2Lovell, Crown, Beadle3,68418 April 1992Barnet (A)0–24,04920 April 1992Crewe Alexandra (H)0–12,92825 April 1992Chesterfield (A)3–3Thomas, Lovell, Green2,1092 May 1992Halifax Town (H)2–0Lovell (2, 1 pen.)2,413
a. Result expunged following Aldershot's expulsion from the Football League
Partial league table
Cup matches FA Cup