“Que sera sera, whatever will be will be, we’re going to Shrewsbury, que sera sera!”

Sat 3 May - Leeds United 2 - 1 Gills

The Gills have been relegated. There, finally said it, typed it, seen it happen in all it’s Technicolor gory glory too… It feels weird really, not like the seething bitter heartbreak and injustice of the City Ground in 2005 nor the “resigned to it at Christmas” tragic-comedy horror show of 1989, we went into the game expecting to go down but mathematically still alive. The equation was simple, anything less than a win for the Gills and we’d have no chance, but we also needed Bournemouth not to win at Carlisle (who were still in the hunt for automatic promotion) and Cheltenham to lose to Doncaster (which would have seen Donny promoted into the bargain). Well as you all no doubt know a heroic Bournemouth did fail to win, but even when we led at no stage did Cheltenham go behind. It was out of our hands, the damage already done which meant for a curious ninety minutes of resignation, hope, joy, fear, defiance, acceptance, humour and ultimately pride… well I did say it was a peculiar afternoon!

Staying Alive…

Saturday 5 April - Millwall 1-1 Gills

The rousing seat-of-our-pants victory over Luton saw this game upgraded from an inconsequential and potentially humiliating formality to a squeaky bum relegation six pointer. After a couple of beers in Borough Market, some were even claiming it was a £50m grand slam 24 pointer, a must win fixture of greater importance than anything the Arsenal v Liverpool trilogy could to conjure up.

Win or bust

Tuesday 1 April - Gills 2 - 1 Luton Town

So this was the fabled “game in hand” then… on the way back from Port Vale some of us had teased a fellow Gill about his touching faith in the team’s ability to win this game and get themselves back within touching distance of safety. It wasn’t exactly win or bust because even a win would leave us in the drop zone but lose and even the most optimistic of souls would have probably succumbed to the tide of resignation already threatening to overwhelm the club. It was more of an “eliminator”, defeat and you could start making plans for a wet weekend in Morecambe, draw and a Tuesday night at Gigg Lane Bury was looking more than likely, but win, well win and we would live to fight another day putting the wind up Crewe and Millwall into the bargain.

A point gained

Saturday 29 March 0 Gills 0 - 0 Carlisle

Our demise against tail end charlies Vale, and a general failure to despatch teams in and around us at the wrong end of the table has left the team under pressure to sneak some points against promotion chasing sides like Carlisle. The majority who’d witnessed recent performances probably didn’t hold out much hope of a result against the second placed Cumbrians, but anyone who has watched football for long enough will know that the gap in quality between top and bottom often gets eroded as the season enters its final third.

Doubled & doomed In the Potteries…

Monday 24 March - Port Vale 2 - 1 Gills

If the Crewe game was a “must win game” and we lost it then this was a “really, really, really must win game” and we lost this too. The mood at the end was pretty subdued and we strolled out of Vale Park and down the hill resigned to our fate. If you play the bottom club who are virtually down and lose it doesn’t bode well for the last seven games… the fact that we contrived to create a stack of chances (and proceeded to miss them including a pathetic penalty) simply underlined why, baring a miracle, we’ll be accompanying the Valiants into League Two next season. To be honest we deserve it too. The icy wind, hail and flurries of snow blowing bitterly into our faces tested even the most stoical of the 234 Gills in away end as the team failed to perform again.

Spitting out of dummy…..

Saturday 22 March - Gills 2 -1 Bournemouth

Hello and welcome everybody to this match report for the Bournemouth game.

Turd on a string

Saturday 15 March - Gills 0 -3 Crewe

As we slid inexorably down the table there was a crumb of comfort to be had from a run of fixtures against sides in and around us in the League. Win those, went the logic, and we will be ok. So it’s fair to say that a shambolic 3-0 home defeat in the first of those relegation six-pointers hasn’t exactly calmed the nerves. In fact, the Gills now find themselves staring straight down both barrels of a relegation shotgun (if I can unmercifully mix my metaphors for a moment - and why not, Paul Scally does so with alacrity in his programme notes).