Gillingham manager Mark Bonner claims a successful FA Cup run has the potential to connect his current squad forever.
Bonner is no stranger to FA Cup glory, knocking out Premier League Newcastle when he was managing former club Cambridge United in January 2022 – seven years after the U’s took Manchester United to a replay at Old Trafford.
And he points to the current Gills away shirt – which commemorates Peter Taylor’s promotion-winning side from 2000 – as a reminder of what success can bring.
“You can never take away the story that the vast majority of players that would have played in that game, the vast majority of staff that were attached to it, when it’s all said and done at the end of your career and you say what are the best things that happened, that will definitely be one of them as it will take some to beat that,” said Bonner, reflecting on the day Cambridge won at Newcastle.
“A sold-out away end at a stadium that was packed at a club that had just lifted a cloud over them with an ownership where they’d become the richest in the world.
“Kieran Trippier was making his debut and Allan Saint-Maximin was playing. Nearly everyone in our team had the best game of their lives and we couldn’t even fill the full bench with players available.
“We pulled out an unbelievable result and we certainly enjoyed it. When those things happen, like really successful seasons or big moments, they connect you forever as a team.
“I look at the yellow anniversary shirt we’re wearing this year and that team will be connected forever because of the successes they shared together. The reason why those moments are so good is because they are so rare.
“In order to achieve it you probably had more funerals than weddings along the way and it’s that stuff that makes it so good when it happens. We’ve had a few funerals recently and now we need a few weddings quite quickly.”
Bonner’s face instantly lit up when he spoke about guiding his former club to victory at Newcastle.
They are special memories, and ones that he wants to re-create at Gillingham one day.
Asked what he remembers most, Bonner replied: “The goal firstly that we scored, the goalkeeper’s unbelievable performance to keep making saves, he made one in the 90-something minute that stopped it going to extra-time.
“We had a VAR check for our goal which was a new experience for us, we’d never experienced that before and it was absolutely nonsense, it took ages and the communication was awful, the way it worked. That might have improved this year but as our first experience of it, it was so annoying.
“We thought we had a penalty in the first half that did go to a VAR check but didn’t get given, we still think that was wrong.
“The away end is literally in the gods and there were 5,500 fans up there that sang all day. Then as you come out, the flags and the display at the Gallowgate End, everything was just mindblowing.
“I never come out before the team, I always follow the team out. But I left the boys to it in the dressing room as I wanted to sit on the bench and feel the atmosphere and the song they played when they come out. The atmosphere was just a joke, I’ve never felt anything like it.
“A really good day, really enjoyable occasion on the day. It would be really nice to have some moments like that here.”
