Sport

Catching up with Gillingham FC

Ben Hopkins

12 Feb 2026 — 5 min read

Last month’s Gillingham column was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch, so there’s a lot to catch up on with fan, writer, and professional miserablist Ben Hopkins...

A holiday horrorshow

At the start of December, all I wanted was for Gills to improve on a mediocre November. What happened next? Four draws, two defeats, and a snakey slide down the table to 16th is what happened next. The performances within those games weren’t necessarily terrible, but you’d struggle to make a convincing claim that Gills deserved much more than a measly four points from a possible eighteen. As an isolated blip, this wouldn’t be too discouraging. Yet the longer term trend going into January looked much worse: no wins since beating Bristol Rovers in November, and no home wins since Notts County all the way back in mid-September.

Gillingham at home to Barrow. Photo: Ben Hopkins.

Battling the January blues

After defeat away to the Swine (sometimes referred to as Swindon), match postponements forced an extended break. A late late show at home to Newport and 17 minutes of added time saw Gills make a spirited comeback from 1-2 down to triumph 3-2. And the following week, Gills eventually came good to head home from Harrogate with a 3-0 victory secured. Two consecutive wins, albeit versus two of the division’s weakest teams, generated some positivity.

But the potential black cloud on the horizon was Bromley. Sure enough, hope was extinguished when Gills were 3-0 down within 27 minutes, eventually losing 4-1. A battling defeat you could perhaps credit. But instead it confirmed that a team who were recently three divisions below Gillingham are now an example of getting everything right that we’re getting so wrong. The subsequent midweek defeat at Notts County was adequate, if you disregard the brainfart marking that resulted in the only goal of the game. But at least a 2-1 at home to Tranmere lifted the gloom a little.

It feels like a microcosm of much of the season. Face a weak opposition (Harrogate and Newport currently holding the two relegation positions while Tranmere are at the foot of the form table), and Gills have enough inspiration and battle to get over the line. Anyone with a bit of substance to them, and it’s game over, man, game over.