Football Season Review

Gillingham entered the season with high expectations after winning League Two but, just like many other recent fourth division champions, the Gills struggled to immediately adapt to life in the third tier. They won only two of their opening eleven games, with the poor early form causing the board to fire Martin Allen and replace him with Peter Taylor. Despite being expected to help the Gills tighten up at the back, Taylor opted to ask his players to play attacking football, and the Gills won six and lost six of his opening twelve games in charge as a result. Taylor had to deal with plenty of injury problems, with the biggest blow coming in February, when Danny Kedwell, who was the Gills' top scorer at that stage of the season, underwent hernia surgery that caused him to miss the majority of the remainder of the campaign. However, the Gills kept performing reasonably well in his absence, with Cody McDonald and Adebayo Akinfenwa both managing to come up with crucial goals when needed. Gillingham did not have any lengthy runs of particularly good or bad results under Taylor, and their efforts were just enough for them to stay away from danger in the end, as they finished their campaign six points above the relegation zone. They conceded 79 goals, more than any other side in the division bar Crewe, but their saving grace was the fact that they scored more goals than any other bottom half side bar Coventry. Their keeper Stuart Nelson was voted their Player of the Season by the fans, and this speaks volumes about the number of scoring chances the Gills allowed their opponents to create. Taylor, who signed a contract with the club extension at the end of the season, will certainly spend the summer looking for defensive reinforcements in order to make his side more competitive in their next campaign.

Player of the Season: Stuart Nelson