The season kicks off at Priestfield on Saturday August 6th as we take on Colchester United in our first match of the season. An evening trip to the Potteries provides our first away test of the season as we take on Port Vale. That’s swiftly followed by our first weekend away game, at Scunthorpe.
Christmas is always one of the busiest times of the footbaIl season – and Season 2005/2006 is no different. We entertain Bristol City at home on Boxing Day, then take a trip to Wales to face Swansea on the 28th. We’re back at home on New Year’s Eve to face MK Dons, then we have a day’s rest and recuperation after the New Year’s festivities before making the trip up to Yorkshire to face Huddersfield at the McAlpine Stadium.
|
We’ve avoided most of the expected title contenders in our run-in, which is good news. Our final three matches see us go west to face Yeovil followed by our final home game, against Walsall. Then our season finishes with what could be one of the best away trips of the season – Blackpool.
With the weather hopefully beginning to warm up, it promises to be a huge end-of-season party at the seaside resort, with the travelling Gills support likely to be donning a variety of fancy dress gear for the trip.
"It's nice to be at home," said Gills boss Neale Cooper after viewing the fixtures for the coming season.
"All the opening games will be tough and we have two away games straight after we play Colchester.
"Colchester are a good side but we have to draw positives from the fact we have got a home fixture to start with. People are bound to look at us as one of the favourites for promotion because we came down from the Championship and we have to show we can handle the pressure if we are up there."
With a new manager at the helm - and with new players likely to be joining us before the start of the new campaign, it promises to be an exciting season. Could we be celebrating promotion on the beach on May 6th? There's a lot of football to be played before we’ll find out!