Gillingham play in the first round of the FA Cup for the 101st time this weekend – but there could still be plenty of firsts at Priestfield.
It’s quite an achievement for the club formed as New Brompton in 1894 before changing its name to Gillingham in 1912.
It’s a much-changed FA Cup this season, however, with no replays from the first round onwards – robbing smaller teams of potential money-spinning replays. It means games will need to be decided on the day with extra-time and penalties if necessary.
While having nine substitutes available isn’t new this season, that will be a first for Gills boss Mark Bonner when his side host Blackpool at Priestfield on Saturday.
“I’ve never named nine subs before, I’ve never had the luxury,” said Bonner. Asked if two of the nine could be goalkeepers, he added: “We could do but we’ll see how many players we’ve got.”
As for the potential of extra-time and spot-kicks, Bonner said: “It doesn’t affect how we start the game at all. It might affect the flow of the game, timing of changes, but if you go to extra-time you get an extra sub anyway.
“It will be the longest briefing before a game ever as they’ll be explaining all the rules to us!
“We’ll see how the game plays out and there’s the possibility that (extra-time) happens, and we’ll have to be ready for it if it does.
“Both teams will be trying like anything to win it in 90 minutes – no-one wants extra-time.
“If it gets to extra-time so be it but we’ve got to be competitive enough to make sure we’re in it in the 90 minutes, and we’ll try to win it in the 90 if we can.”
One of Bonner’s favourite FA Cup memories is a replay while he was on the academy staff at Cambridge United away to Manchester United.
But that doesn’t mean he’s totally against the decision to scrap replays this season.
“It depends who they’re against,” he stated. “Sometimes they’re an absolute pain as it adds a game in that you don’t need and don’t want.
“I’m a fan of less games but the business of football is definitely not, they want more games. In the end, the business of football is dictated to (at) our level by the big ones, and the big ones said they don’t want replays anymore so they’ve gone.
“They stuffed some extra cash in the wallets of the EFL to vote for it because if they don’t then they don’t get the money.
“I’m not paid to have an opinion on it and even if I was, my opinion is irrelevant because we have to do as we’re told.
“The loss is the potential income and memories you can have from a replay. I’ve played in some replays that were lucrative and I’ve played in some that were an absolute pain in the backside and you wish you didn’t have them.
“Overall in football, I think the level will be better at lower levels with less games but at the same time it is what it is.”
It certainly means there’s an even greater advantage of being drawn at home in the competition now.
“We definitely want home games as often as possible,” added the Gills boss.
“When the draw was made, I was fairly calm at the beginning and you’re not even on the screen but the longer it goes on you start to be a bit edgy as you see all the teams that are left – you’re going ‘there’s some horror games there or horror journeys there’.
“We certainly wanted a home game, we didn’t want to travel the length of the country to play, for sure.”
As for the potential of a penalty shoot-out, Bonner believes there’s little point in planning what is going to happen in advance.
“120 minutes is a long time and I guarantee that five people who say they want one won’t probably be on the pitch at the end of the game so we deal with it then,” said Bonner.
“Who can move? Who fancies it? I’ve been in penalty shoot-outs before, people think they want one and then when it comes round to it, they really don’t want one.
“In the moment it will be who fancies it. We’ve got a few in the squad who have taken penalties in the past.”
