There has been a hell of a lot of sounding off over the 'Valley Express', the Charlton buses which take Kent and Medway-based football fans to the Charlton to help fill The Valley. There is an arguable point over the ethical conduct of Charlton, but to be honest, the way Gillingham FC have handled this news is a reflection of why they are a Championship side and Charlton are a forward-thinking Premiership side.
The problem is, when it comes to PR, Gillingham FC are nothing short of useless. Just think of the various PR fauxs-pas we've seen from them in recent seasons: the Arsenal ticket fiasco, the over-priced season tickets, the attempted change of club colours, the inability of the chairman to go more than a couple of months without picking a fight with someone or other. First it was Alan Liptrott, then the Kent Messenger, then Tony Pulis, then Carl Asaba, then the fans themselves, and now Charlton Athletic.
In each case, the problems could have been resolved much quicker and quieter than they actually were (some are still ongoing). He seems to shoot himself, and the club, in the foot time after time. Charlton have a reputation as a well-run, friendly, family club. Gillingham have a reputation as a rough, tough, not-that-good side with a duff ground (remember the Observer piece?) and a dodgy chairman (according to many fans of other clubs). We're certainly much better than our reputation among some fans suggests, but we really don't help ourselves at times.
As for the coach business. Perhaps it is a touch cheeky of Charlton to run these buses from Gillingham FC's doorstep, but at the end of the day we're doing precious little to attract fans to Priestfield, or, perhaps more importantly, we as fans (and many as residents of the Medway Towns) don't know what the club is doing to attract fans to Priestfield. The fact that we know all about Charlton's coach service, yet know nothing about any initiatives we are running sums up the problem in a nutshell. We make ourselves look bad when we should be making ourselves look good.
The only result of this hoo-ha is the fact that more people now know about the Charlton bus service - it wouldn't have been a story if Scally had kept his mouth shut. Now Charlton has received local and national media coverage for its scheme and now they'll see the benefits of that. If you weren't attached to a club and you had the option of going to a friendly, family Premiership club on a cheap coach and pay reasonable ticket prices for Premiership football, or going to watch inferior quality football on a crap pitch in a dodgy area for inflated prices, there really isn't that much of a decision to make.
I think it’s time to put the toys back in the pram, take a reality check and realise that this is simply competition. Hopefully the competition from Charlton will help make Gillingham work a little harder on the PR and marketing front. Then, together with some shrewd management on and off the field, we might see Gillingham FC making some positive steps forward once again.