Past Times: Part 14 - Not a lot to shout about!

The 1979-80 season was very much a case of “after the Lord Mayor’s show”. After coming so close to promotion the previous season the 79-80 season ended in a relegation scrap!

The reason for this dramatic turnaround in form was, in most fans’ eyes, down to manager Gerry Summers’ unbelievable new tactics. Youngster Steve Bruce, capped by England Youth as a centre-back, was promoted to the first team where Summers insisted on playing him in midfield! Whilst once prolific goal scoring centre forward, Damien Richardson, was played as a wide player. He finished the season with just one goal to his name (his 100^th for the club).

We finished the season in 16^th place but that was only 3 points clear (still 2 points for a win) of Bury who were the best of the relegated four.

The season had, however, promised to carry on where the previous had left off. At the end of September the Gills were lying in a respectable 5^th with the following record:-

P 8, W 4, D 3, L 1, For 11, A 7, Pts 11

Just three weeks later we had slipped to 20^th after losing three consecutive games. We now faced a relegation battle. As usual things picked up in January when we remained unbeaten for the whole month. (A surprising fact is that Gills never lost a game in January in the six seasons that Summers was boss!)

The January results was just the calm before the storm, though, as we finished the season winning only 5 of our last 22 games. In fact it was not until a 2-0 win at Chester in our last away game of the season that we avoided relegation.

The last game was a dreadful as we lost 1-0 at home to Plymouth Argyle. It seemed unbelievable that a virtually unchanged side, that had come so close to the promised land the previous season, would come so near to relegation the next.

There were some highlights, however, including a 4-0 (Westwood 2, Barker (pen), Bruce) home thrashing of Oxford United and a 3-0 (Westwood, Bruce, Crabbe) away win at Southend United in October 1979, plus a 3-0 (Westwood 2, Bruce) home win in March against Sheffield United.

We were also involved in four excellent League Cup games early in the season. We beat 2^nd Division Luton Town 3-0 at Priestfield in the first round first leg before drawing the 2^nd leg 1-1 at Kenilworth Road. In the second round we held first division Norwich City 1-1 (Overton) at Priestfield in the first leg before twice being in front in the 2^nd leg at Carrow Road (Bruce 2) eventually losing 4-2. Bruce, of course, was later signed by Norwich City before his big move to Manchester United.

On a personal note I took Penelope (nickname Frankie) my new girlfriend to her first ever football match. Brentford away, I don’t know whether she enjoyed it, I did though as the Gills ran out 2-0 winners through Price and Westwood!

At the end of the season, however, the fans had started to turn against manager Gerry Summers and a dramatic improvement was needed next season.

(Next Time: The Gills get stoned!)