A Rough Guide To Gillingham Sunday, 6th Aug 2023 21:00 It's been over 13 years since we last visited Gillingham, meaning that many of the 1,400 Southampton fans going on Tuesday night may not have been to the ground, read on for all the information that you need. It was 1st May 2010 that Saints last visited Gillingham on the 34th anniversary of the 1976 FA Cup win, ironic given that a few weeks earlier we had won at Wembley for only the second time when we had beaten Carlisle United in the Johnstones Paint Trophy final. This game was our first League encounter at the Priestfield Stadium since 1957, although in the years in between we had two visits in the League Cup, firstly in 1992/93 season when we drew 0-0 in the 2nd round first leg game, a couple of weeks later they arrived at the Dell for the 2nd leg and were despatched 3-0 with goals from Iain Dowie and a brace from Matt Le Tissier with only 6, 764 in attendance, less than the 7,488 who watched the game in Kent.
Fast forward to 9th October 2001 and we travelled up to Kent again in the same competition, in front of 7, 948 fans, a few more than the previous encounter, this time we made no mistake, a James Beattie penalty on 9 minutes giving us the lead and then marian Pahars closing the game out with 7 minutes left. So I would suspect that there will be a fair few Saints supporters in the MEMS Priestfield Stadium on Tuesday evening who went 13 years ago, but less who went to either of the previous two games and perhaps half of those going haven't been at all. The Stadium Three sides of the ground are modern and in keeping with the club's usual place in League One or Two, the fourth side though is the aptly names Brian Moore stand, in memorial of the former Football presenter on ITV who was a big Gills fan. It is aptly named as Moore was famous for his bald head, and this stand has nothing covering either, in fact it is a temporary stand, although it has been temporary now since 2003, guess what it is also the away end. The ground now has a capacity of 11,582, although in the past three seasons in League One, the average has been around half of that. The Away End As mentioned it is a temporary seated area of the type you see at Golf Course for the open, so check the weather forecast as if it rains we will get wet. Half of it is given to home supporters, but bizarrely although home and away fans have their own turnstile entrances, once inside both sets of fans are able to freely mingle behind the stand in a vast area of scaffolding. The stand does have catering facilities etc, but from memory they are pretty spartan. Eating Drinking Etc The Fleur De Lis pub on Gillingham Road, which is around a ten minute walk away from the Priestfield Stadium, has been designated by the local Police as an away fans pub, although when we went there in 2010 the Livingstone Arms was only 100 metres from the away turnstiles but is apparently not there anymore. There are other pubs in the town centre and by Gillingham Train centre. Getting There By Car Its quite a simple route, take the M3 to the M25 and then follow signs to the East signposted Gatwick Airport, stay on the M25 and then join the M26 towards Dover, then on to the M20, then take the A229 towards Gillingham. From Southampton it is around 120 miles, but although it is a direct route mainly motorway, it can get quite congested, I would allow at least 3 hours for the journey, due to traffic jams, going home will be quicker as long as there are no diversions. Parking Most of the streets around the ground are residents only parking, so you need to be check the restriction signs when parking, there is a car park near the railway Station, around 10 mins away and some off road parking. By Train Priestfield is around a 10 minute walk from Gillingham Railway station which is well served by trains from London, on a Saturday this would be the easiest way to get there, however unless you leave the game early then you would be hard pressed to make the last train from Waterloo to Southampton at 23.57. The MEMS Priestfield Stadium With Thanks to footballgroundguide.com Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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