Match Information
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Gillingham Town 3-2 Radstock Town
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When: Saturday 4th March 2023
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Kick-off: 3pm
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Where: Woodwater Lane, off Hardings Lane, Gillingham, Dorset SP8 4WL
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Competition: Western League Division One
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Attendance: 42
The Dorset town of Gillingham houses 11,700 residents and is pronounced with a hard ‘G’ as in in the gills of a fish. This is different to the more famous Kent town which everyone knows sounds like “Jillingham”.
Anyway, I had previously been to Gillingham Town’s old ground at Hardings Lane in 2017 just before they vacated it.
On that occasion, I had a stroll 200 yards down the adjacent dusty track called Woodwater Lane to look at where their new stadium was being built and noticed a railed-off playing area was already in place.
The entire venue was subsequently completed to Step 6 Non-League grading standards. So for this latest groundhop, I decided on a 300 mile round trip back to Gillingham via the M25, M3 and A303.
To my delight there were no traffic problems en route, even when I passed Stonehenge where a lengthy delay is normal at the main roundabout.
Ground Description
Neat and tidy. Ample car parking spaces are available. A metal prefab grandstand containing 100 seats in four rows lies alongside the pitch plus covered terracing for 100 behind one goal.
Some grass banking stretching the length of the far touchline provides elevated viewing for spectators. The dressing rooms, clubhouse, tea bar and toilets are all located in converted portacabins.
Unusually for modern Non-League football, there are four corner pylons for the floodlights. These are powered by a noisy generator. I liked the gentle semi-circular curve of the perimeter railings at either end.
Trains rumble past close by on a busy railway line. I also had a pre-match browse around the old Hardings Lane ground which is still partially intact. Three young lads were having a kick-around whilst I carried out my impromptu inspection.
The exterior fencing has been removed as has the roof of the original grandstand, although the seating remains along with pitch railings, goal posts and the floodlights.
However, it was sad to see the dug outs have been heavily vandalised. I understand the playing surface can be used for Gillingham Town youth fixtures when necessary.
Programme Details
On sale at the entry hut for £2. Plenty of good reading material which provided a nice matchday souvenir for me.
The Match
Radstock dominated early on and raced into a 2-0 lead courtesy of strikes by Jacob Bird (4 minutes) and Matthew Curnock (37 mins). The result seemed done and dusted at half-time.
Yet to my great surprise, Gillingham battled back grabbing three second half goals from Jordon Clapp (61 mins), James Boyland (68 mins) and Max Westlake (80 mins).
The home side defended frantically late on but they were roared to victory by excited supporters yelling: “Come on Gill”.
The People
The chairman Patrick Fricker has been involved at Gillingham Town for 20 years. He gave me a warm welcome on the day and spoke very proudly about his club. They were originally founded in 1879 thereby claiming to be Dorset’s oldest football team.
Patrick told me the recent ground move was necessary because they only had a year-to-year lease from a local farmer on the old pitch so it was difficult to develop the facilities there.
The new site had to be entirely levelled before football could take place. He also said he wants to grow the club’s profile within their town because “many nearby people don’t even know that we are here”.
In addition, I received an interesting tweet after the match from @IsaacStatue reminding me of a totally unique football twinning exercise between Gillingham FC and Gillingham Town FC…
“April 22nd 2006, Football League/Kent Gillingham played Yeovil Town away, then a number of Gills fans, me included, went to support Gillingham Town in their home game, which had been scheduled to kick off later for our benefit."
*Credit for photos in this article belongs to @TonyIncenzo*
FIRST PUBLISHED: 9th March 2023
