Consistently inconsistent
Looking for positivity at Gillingham FC, plus Medway Council's uninspiring coworking space, a review of the Mast and Rigging, our weekly events guide, and more
For a team that has struggled in recent years, Gillingham FC are in a fairly positive position, teetering on the edge of the play-off places. Our Gills columnist Ben Hopkins wonders if it is possible to dream of a miracle. If football isn’t your bag, further down, we have a first look at Medway Council’s coworking space for the Pentagon, a review of the Mast and Rigging pub in Gillingham, our weekly events guide, a news roundup, and lots more.
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Consistently inconsistent
This month our Gills columnist Ben Hopkins expected to find that his Gills glass was half-full, but it turns out someone stole his pint.
Gillingham’s recent results have been consistently inconsistent, a trend that has lasted since August. A draw versus Stockport and wins against Salford and Disney boys Wrexham? Pretty good. Flat performances and defeats against contenders Barrow and Wimbledon? Dispiriting, especially as the importance of those matches was almost as much about halting the momentum of fellow play-off contenders as actually winning ourselves. Against Tranmere and Grimsby, they managed to display extended runs of attacking intent, albeit only finishing with a pair of 1-1 draws.
Wimbledon proved to be a particular low point. Already a goal down, an uncharacteristic quickfire double-brainfart from key defender and top scorer (not a common combination) Conor Masterson resulted in a red card before half-time. Head Coach Stephen Clemence reacted by substituting sole striker Olly Hawkins for the more defensively-minded Robbie McKenzie. You could make a case that the plan would be to keep the ten men tight and perhaps snatch an equaliser from a set piece. You could also make a more convincing argument that desperately needing to score when the team’s goal difference is already a lost cause is not the time to play without a recognised attacker.
Of course, wildly unpredictable things happen in football, and it’s not over until the fat lady sings, although she is already dressed and has warmed up her vocal cords. So the big question is…
Can Gills make the play-offs?
Gillingham currently has 56 points with seven games remaining. If they win all seven, they will finish with 77 points and comfortably land in the play-offs. But when did Gillingham last win seven consecutive league games? The answer is (drum roll)… 1955, when they finished fourth. One slight problem: the play-offs didn’t exist back then.
Slightly more encouragingly, they don’t necessarily need to win all seven games. Over the past ten (fully completed) League Two seasons, the team in the lowest play-off position has finished with an average of 72.7 points. Let’s therefore say Gills need 73 to have a decent chance (I’m rounding up as their goal difference is unwell). That would require 17 points: a minimum of 5 wins and 2 draws, or 6 wins and a defeat. It’s also an unlikely scenario, given they’re scheduled to play three teams currently above them.
In a clutching at straws attempt to find a happy ending, I’m turning the clock back to the 2012-2013 season. Bradford landed in the play-offs with just 69 points, but would’ve finished in the same position with 68. That would leave Gillingham needing 12 points: 4 wins, with anything else being a bonus. That sounds vaguely possible, albeit before considering the strength of the opposition and Gills’ pathetic goal tally.
tl;dr: Technically yes, but almost definitely no.
Next up: Morecambe
Facing the team two places below them in the table, albeit with the handicap of being away, the game against Morecambe is quite tight to predict.
Reasons for optimism? Morecambe have lost three games in a row, conceding eleven goals in the process.
Reasons for pessimism? Gillingham have failed to win in their past four outings, scoring just twice. In fact, no Gills striker has scored in their previous eight games.
What can Stephen Clemence do differently? A reprisal of the second-half formation versus Tranmere could work, where the talented but often ineffectual pair Connor Mahoney and George Lapslie looked impressive - something they both repeated in a tweaked line-up against Grimsby. New signing Josh Andrews could be rushed into a long-awaited debut, although having not played a first-team game since early December, it’s hard to see him being match-fit for much more than a cameo. Perhaps Shadrach Ogie might be encouraged to try the kind of rampaging run which almost won the game versus Grimsby. Other than that… well, I’m out of ideas.
What else interesting may happen before the end of the season?
If Gills need a goal in injury time versus Morecambe, it’s not impossible that goalkeeper Glenn Morris could be sent forward to attack a corner. My brief research suggests that the last goalkeeper to score for Gills (then New Brompton) was Alf Jenner in 1895, although given the Gills Scrapbook lists his position as ‘goalkeeper /inside-forward’, who knows?
If my maths are correct, Morris could beat club legend Andy Hessenthaler to become the club’s oldest ever player if he features in either of the final two games against Mansfield and Doncaster. The Mansfield game could also see the opposition secure promotion or even the title.
Defender Max Ehmer is likely to end the season by rising to 7th on the list of all-time most appearances for the club.
I’m clutching at straws again, aren’t I?
Ben Hopkins is now mostly looking forward to the possibility of another summer friendly abroad.
In brief
🧑⚖️ The average wait time for a civil case at Medway County Court is now two years and 11 months, which seems entirely sustainable. It is also probably not helped by the next story.
🚛 Medway County and Family Court will move into a hotel in Maidstone. The move comes following the closure of the existing site at Gun Wharf due to dangerous concrete being found in the roof.
🔐 Cookham Wood Youth Offender Institute is to be closed down, with the site becoming an adult prison. Concerns about the safety of inmates and a ‘violent’ culture at the site have been raised in recent years.
🚧 National Highways have raised concerns over a 240 home development in Hoo. Further issues have been raised about the distance residents would be from local facilities.
🏗️ A 14 flat development in Gillingham has been approved. The plans will see six substandard maisonettes demolished on the site next to Aldi.
🔬 A couple of weeks ago, we featured an excerpt from local artist Michi Masumi celebrating women working in STEM in Medway. The full photo and interview series is now available on her website.
🏡 Gillingham Football Club are seeking host families for their 16-18 year old academy players. They won’t pay anything for the placement and people with a criminal record will be considered.
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Ascend to blandness
After months of planning, we finally got to see what the giant coworking space inside the Pentagon will look like. And it’s exactly what you’d imagine from a Medway Council project.
Ascend is the name chosen for the site which will take over half of the upstairs of the Pentagon alongside the new NHS Healthy Living Centre on the other side. In principle, the idea isn’t bad, though there is perhaps an optimism about exactly how many people are eager to bring their laptops into an old shopping centre in Chatham to get some work done.
If done right, it could be something interesting in our towns, but there is little to inspire from the initial marketing. The designs very much have the vibe of what people who work in a 9-5 office think coworking space users might like: bland colours, uncomfortable chairs, and straight rows of desks. The website isn’t much more reassuring, full of corporate buzzspeak and talk of ‘community’ that just talks about ‘entrepreneurial spirit’ and ‘scaling up’. Amusingly, their logo font seems to be remarkably similar to WeWork’s, the coworking firm that imploded so spectacularly that Apple made a TV show about it.
There is a place for these kinds of more business-focused spaces, and nearby Dragon Coworking on New Road has built a thriving community of people seeking to grow. As a council-led project, there was an opportunity to build something new and unique that brought people from all walks of life together. Instead, the focus appears to be on filling the site with the kind of people who describe their job as a hustle while trying to grow their podcast audience.
Following the debacle of the Innovation Park project, where millions were spent on a business park that attracted precisely zero tenants, it is curious just how confident Medway Council are that they can attract hundreds of freelancers and small businesses to bring their laptops into an old shopping centre in Chatham to get some work done. Ascend will launch later this year, so we’ll find out how right they are fairly soon.
Out to lunch: The Mast and Rigging
Steven Keevil assesses the lunch options available in our towns. This week, he’s been to the Mast and Rigging in Gillingham…
The Mast and Rigging is a reasonably sized community pub built and opened before the community, in the form of monoliths of flats, was built. Next door to the Gillingham Pier Asda and opposite Medway Police station, it would be a relatively accessible location if not for crossing a dual carriageway.
Part of the Marston’s chain, the pub is welcoming, the staff friendly, and inoffensive pop music plays through the speakers. For those seeking to reduce their contact with mankind, you can order food and drink through an app. The app wasn’t accurate in this instance, but the bar staff sorted that out in good humour.
Three pints of fizzy soft drinks set us back £11.40, which is both expensive and reasonable in this market simultaneously. As far as this writer is concerned, they also commit the sin of not actually serving a full pint. A tendency amongst pubs, when you ask for no ice, is to serve the amount you would get if ice raised the level. Draught drinks can otherwise be a lottery due to the quality of mix, temperature, and fizziness, but the Mast and Rigging scored well on these fronts.
Lunch was a starter of breaded mushrooms, with a ‘cowboy’ burger and fries. The breaded mushrooms were well cooked and flavoursome for beige fried food, served with a garlic dip and, in this case, missing the chopped chives, not that it was a great loss. The starter became a side, however, as it was served with the burger, which consisted of two prime beef burgers topped with crispy bacon, American cheese and shredded iceberg lettuce. This was all well cooked and put together, served with warm, crispy fries and a small pot of burger sauce.
Ultimately, the Mast & Rigging is recommended if you are looking for a decent quality filling pub lunch served promptly in a welcoming environment.
Events this week
🎨 A new exhibition of Sun Pier House artists is on display at the Halpern Pop gallery in Nucleus’ Rochester site until 1 April. Nine artists display work across a range of disciplines. Free.
📷 Rochester Cathedral has a new exhibition of cathedral photography, functionally titled The English Cathedral. The show features images of all 42 Anglican cathedrals by the late photographer Peter Marlow and is currently touring each of them. It’ll be at Rochester until 2 April. Free.
🎸 Indiepop legend Pete Astor plays at the Oast Community Centre in Rainham for Careful Now Promotions tonight (22 Mar). Support comes from Joe Linton and Simon Bunyan. Tickets £8.
⛵ Chatham Dockyard is hosting a new exhibition celebrating 200 years of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. It opens tomorrow (23 Mar) and runs until September. Included with £28.50 Chatham Dockyard entry ticket.
More Authority
Our paid supporters receive extra editions of Local Authority every week. Earlier this week, we looked (hopefully for the last time this year) at Medway Council’s budget-setting process, asking Leader Vince Maple how they made the decisions they did.
This Sunday, we’ll be publishing an interview with Cllr George Perfect, the new deputy leader of the Medway Conservative Group. An excerpt from the interview is below:
What was your reaction when you heard that Councillor Turpin had stood down as deputy leader?
I think it was disappointing. To lose any colleague within a political group is tough. I'm not going to pretend that we find that easy. We've worked together, she was our deputy leader. It was very disappointing.
Councillor Turpin stood down, you stood unopposed. Why don’t people in your group want to be deputy leader?
I think it's different. I think that your question is wrong. I think the point is that the group are united. I don't think the group have ever been as united as they have been behind a candidate. I think the group realised I've done a lot of work over the past 12 months, 11 months in my role as opposition spokesperson for children's services and education. I think the group are united, that we needed to get behind one person and get on with the job rather than having internal discussions, which is why I was elected unopposed as deputy leader. The team are working very closely together, and we've got a brilliant team of 21 councillors getting on with the job.
You were only elected for the first time in 2023. Isn't it a bit soon for you to be deputy leader?
No, I don't think so. I think there are countless examples around the country of exceptional younger councillors doing incredible jobs, whether it be Dan Swords doing a fantastic job in Harlow, leader of the council. Keane Duncan, who's standing in Yorkshire as our mayoral candidate, was leader of his council when he was 24. Plenty of other young councillors that are doing great jobs, and I think it's really important that groups not only ensure that they reflect the communities they serve but also that younger voices are at the table because it's very important. I know some on the other side have been trying to use that against me. If that's the only thing you've got against me, then quite frankly, it says more about them than it does about me.
The full interview will be available to our paid supporters on Sunday. Please consider supporting our work to receive our interviews and our other extra editions.
Footnotes
Music that soundtracked the creation of this edition: Prioritise Pleasure by Self Esteem, Driver by Adult Mom, and Tigers Blood by Waxahatchee.
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