By Thomas Fullagar
May 28, 2000. Tony Blair is Prime Minister. Gladiator entertains at the cinema. Sonique sings “It feels so good” to be at the top of the charts in the UK.
In London, Gillingham were dreaming of putting on a performance of their own on their second trip to Wembley.
Their first journey to the home of English football ended in heartbreak when they faced off against future Premier League champions Man City.
Barry Ashby, a defender who racked up an impressive 319 appearances for the Gills, said: “It was like one of those old school FA Cup finals, the stadium was packed, and the atmosphere was incredible.”
Promotion into Division One (what’s now known as the Championship), for the first time in the Kent side’s history, was whiskers away when Robert Taylor tucked away Gillingham’s second goal after a brilliant backheel pass from Carl Asaba, with three minutes to go.
Just after the end of regulation time, City clawed one back through Kevin Horlock. An additional five minutes was the last thing they needed. In the dying embers of the match, Paul Dickov equalised, and a goalless added-time led to penalties. Only John Hodge was successful from the spot for the Gills; City were going up after winning 3-1 on pens.
Nick Szczepanik, a journalist for the Times, wrote off Gillingham for the next season, believing they weren’t even going to make the play-offs. He said that the Kent club had “missed their chance.” How wrong he was.
Ashby said: “If anyone could recover and get promotion after what happened the last year, it’d be us. We were a strong group, full of leaders.”
Tony Pulis, who’d masterminded their Wembley run, got the sack before the next season started. He had restored the pride in the ‘Pride of Kent,’ and many fans thought it was a very harsh decision.
The choice was made by the former chairman of Gillingham, Paul Scally. To say the two did not get on would be an understatement.
Andy Hessenthaler, who was voted Gillingham’s best-ever player in 2014, was offered the job, but he didn’t feel that he was ready for that at that time. “I was still contributing on the pitch and I still felt fit,” he admitted. Scally asked Hessenthaler who he’d recommend for the job, and he mentioned Peter Taylor.
England legend Glenn Hoddle (in charge of the men’s senior team) trusted Taylor to manage the under-21s between 1996 and 1999 after stints at Dartford and Dover. Future stars in his squads included Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand and Jamie Carragher. Taylor did not disappoint, with only one loss in fifteen.
Coming back into club management, he appointed Hessenthaler and the returning Steve Butler to help him out as player-coaches.
New recruits included midfielder Junior Lewis, one of Taylor’s former Dover players, and defender Brian McGlinchey joined from Port Vale. However, it was Scottish forward Andy Thomson, a £25,000 transfer from Oxford, who proved the most decisive for their fight for promotion…
Hessenthaler says that the disappointment of missing out on promotion was “in the back of their minds” going into the next season. However, his close-knit team had a belief that this year, they wouldn’t be empty-handed.
Taylor’s side had a “pretty dodgy” five-game winless start to the season, says Ashby. When they did find form, they were unplayable. From October to late December, the Gills went nine games unbeaten in the league.
“We were always in games, there weren’t any we lost badly. Sometimes, we might lose 2-1, but we missed a load of chances and another day we win the game 6-2,” said Ashby. “Always creating chances, we were a really attractive team to watch.”
As one Taylor came in, another went out. Man City haunted the Gills yet again in November when they poached prolific goal machine Robert Taylor to join them for £1.5 million. Despite leaving halfway through the campaign, he remained Gillingham’s top goal scorer for the 1999/2000 season. He had 18 goals in 18 games, including a hat-trick of stunning goals against Pulis’ new side Bristol City.
Surely the Gills would struggle without him? But no. Nothing stood in the way of the side from scoring.
Right-winger Nicky Southall stood up in the absence of a striker Gillingham had so often depended on, netting 14 goals in all competitions. Thomson proved to be a great signing, recording 13 goals to his name.
In January, Ty Gooden was the first football player in the British Leagues to be signed in the 21st century. That’s one for your pub quiz. He joined from Swindon for £100,000, along with his team-mate Iffy Onuora – who previously featured for Gillingham between 1996 and 1998.
The new millennium dawned with fears that the world would end, and economies would crumble. Gills had it worse. They didn’t get a league win until February, when they beat Stoke 3-0. Winning four in a row following this, it was a happier month for Gills fans; Carl Asaba, their top goal scorer of the last season, returned from a hernia injury.
Outside the league, the Gills put themselves on the national stage after a fairytale FA Cup run. They shocked Premier League sides Bradford City and Sheffield Wednesday, in two identical scores finishing 3-1. They bowed out in the quarter-finals at Stamford Bridge in a 5-0 loss against a Chelsea side featuring Gianfranco Zola, George Weah and a young John Terry (who scored his first goal for the London side that day). Gillingham’s historic journey is the best finish in the cup to this day.
Hessenthaler was “disappointed” to have narrowly missed out on automatic promotion when they lost to Wrexham, a side who they thrashed in their biggest win of the season 5-1 at home. If his team won the game, they would’ve been equal on points with Burnley, and Gillingham had a superior goal difference.
He looked for light in the dark, saying: “The determined group we had were given an opportunity to right the wrongs of the previous season.”
The play-off journey began when Gillingham played Stoke, who had finished sixth. It really did feel like a ‘cold, rainy night in Stoke’ when the travelling Gills had a nightmare start; two goals down in eight minutes. “
It’s not meant to be,” thought Gooden, before he clawed a self-proclaimed “scrappy” goal back in the 18th minute. Hessenthaler’s wonder goal, a top-bins rocket from a mile out, was the moment he felt they were “destined to win and go up.” Even though Stoke scored another in the game, finishing 3-2, they were going back to Kent.
A season-high crowd of 10,386 at Priestfield witnessed an inspiring comeback from the Gills. It was swinging in the home side’s favour in the first half when Clive Clarke got a second yellow card for throwing the ball away from Southall and Graham Kavanagh was sent straight off in the second half.
Ashby netted the first with a brilliant headed flick-on from a corner. However, Stoke held on and took the game to extra-time. Onuora thumped a powerful header past Gavin Ward from a perfectly weighted cross from Southall for the second. Paul Smith then sealed the deal when he pounced on a bad clearance at the back.
Goals weren’t so frequent in the other semi-final between Millwall and Wigan as it was only decided by one goal. The first game at the Den finished as a goalless draw, and Wigan snatched a 1-0 victory at home.
Gills fans could be optimistic going into this one; they beat Wigan 2-1 a month before at home. But their northern opponents kept a clean sheet in a 2-0 win when the Gills travelled up earlier in the season.
Most of Gillingham’s players had experienced the greatness of Wembley before, with only a couple of new faces who hadn’t. Gooden was one of those, and he said that he had “waited his whole life to get there.
“I remember sitting in the dressing room and wondering who sat there, how long I’ve waited to be there, walking out of the famous tunnel and how many times I’ve seen people walking out of that for cup finals growing up. It’s what you dream of as a kid, it’s fantastic.”
Hessenthaler was more relaxed when they played Man City the year before. He said Gillingham were “underdogs” against a side that was only in the Premiership three seasons prior, and there “wasn’t so much pressure on us.” It was quite the opposite this time around.
Gillingham fans outnumbered Wigan four-to-one, and roughly 42,000 supporters hoped to make their second trip to Wembley a memorable one.
Barry Ashby grew up just under two miles away from Wembley Stadium, so he’d watched some big England games in the ground; now he was playing in one of the biggest matches in his career there. It was “surreal” for him as “his era grew up watching FA Cup finals on TV.”
A promising first half saw the ball bobble into Wigan’s net after a botched tackle from defender Pat McGibbon, who was trying to stop an easy tap-in for Onuora from an Asaba cross. The Gills were in front, but not for long. In the second half, Simon Haworth produced a sensational finish for Wigan, dinking a chip across goal over Gills keeper Vince Bartrum, just inside the right post.
Wigan fans thought they had the lead with a good header from Arjun de Zeewu from a corner, but Southall heroically blocked it off the line to keep Gillingham in contention.
A tide-changing moment just before the game went to extra time saw Wigan’s Kevin Sharp receive a second booking for a rather sharp and late slide on Southall. Hessenthaler believed the dismissal was a stroke of luck that they deserved. Then, he worried: “Oh my God, it’s going back to penalties. We can’t lose on penalties and have the heartache again.”
Wigan fought back and a beautiful one-two move between Andy Liddle and Darren Sheridan led Sheridan through on goal. Unfortunately, local lad Ashby pulled him back and gave away what he said was a “very soft” penalty to stop a potential goal. He admitted: “I would’ve gone down exactly the same if I got touched in the box.
“It was an emotional game, and I had run out of steam.” Substitute Stuart Barlow kept his cool and slotted his penalty bottom left; the 10,000 visiting Wigan fans were in dreamland as they had also stumbled the year before in the play-off semi-finals. Surely, they were going to win this one. The 38-year-old Steve Butler replaced Ashby and “thankfully he did,” the defender joked.
A skilful dummy from Junior Lewis set up a whipped peach-of-a-ball that the super-sub headed powerfully in to equalise. Wigan were lucky to not concede a penalty of their own when Hessenthaler seemed to be tripped whilst darting into the box, and he was booked for arguing with the referee.
Hearts were racing in all those traumatised Gills fans who had made the fruitless trip last year, with the looming threat of those dreaded spot kicks, but a bit of Wembley magic changed all that.
“Two minutes now from the end of extra-time, and it’s still too close to call. Lewis, who engineered the Gillingham equaliser. Gooden, and that is a goodun…” shouted Rob Hawthorne on Sky commentary. Gooden said he had complete trust in bending a ball in the area to who he called a “lower league Ian Rush,” with his anticipation and excellent ability to get around defenders…
“Oh, it’s a header, from Andy Thomson! Yet again it’s a substitute, and surely Gillingham aren’t going to throw this one away,.”
Gooden added: “It was a very clever finish, but typical of Thommo. Time stood still. I remember laying on the floor whilst everyone went crazy. It was just relief after such a long season.”
They had done it in the last League 2 play-off final at the old Wembley Stadium. Certainly one to remember.
Ashby said they had to be kicked off the pitch as they wanted to enjoy it for as long as they could, “taking it all in.” For some fans, the day might have been easily forgotten with all the drinks flowing that night. Ashby chuckled that there weren’t many players who were sober when they got back to Gillingham after someone cracked open a cool box with 200 Budweiser in it.
For Gooden, it was a “crazy 24 hours with no sleep.” Hessenthaler had the final ranked as one of the proudest moments of his storied career.
With the open-top bus tour and the town hall visits, he was chuffed to see just how much it meant to everyone back in Kent.
Impressed with his success, Leicester offered Peter Taylor the chance to become manager. Joining him would be Steve Butler as an assistant manager, who retired after the 99/00 season ended. He hasn’t been involved in football since 2011 when he was an assistant manager at Maidstone.
Hessenthaler, who had won the player of the year for the 99/00 season, took on the coaching job he had previously turned down. He was going into a highly competitive First Division, fighting against big teams like Fulham, Blackburn and Bolton. He enjoyed his first season his management, keeping together most of the formidable group from last season.
Hessenthaler joked that it was hard to go from a team-mate to a manager, saying: “I remember trying to do a team talk, and in the end, I gave up. I just walked out of it because the lads were just laughing and grinning.”
The first game was a 3-1 loss to Stockport away. A warm “welcome to the Championship,” he added. But they finished an impressive 13th, in what he said was a “fantastic season”.
“We were never going to get too carried away because of the financial restraints we had as a newly promoted side, so we exceeded the expectations of the owners and everyone.”
A quarter of a century on, and Gillingham look a shadow of that legendary team. After the 2022/23 season, they were relegated to League 2 and have struggled to bounce back.
Fans have seen six managers in two seasons. Neil Harris, Stephen Clemence and Mark Bonner have all come and gone. Nearly all of them have struggled to win over the fans, and even the players.
Their yellow and blue away strip worn during the past season is a tribute to the kit they wore in that monumental final, but they coudn’t channel the energy from back then. Despite being top of the league after eight games, it seemed more likely that the club were going to be going down than going up this season when they sat in a dismal 20th, two places above relegation.
WHERE ARE THE WEMBLEY HEROES?
At the age of 72, Peter Taylor manages non-league Canvey Island – More here on his Wembley memories
Ashby is a consultant for a sports agency. He said that the game had progressed in areas, but hadn’t in others, since he hung up his boots. He added that he “isn’t jealous of the current players” because of all the scrutiny they get in the press.
“The boys and the everyday banter,” was something he missed, but his team-mates were “only a phone call away.”
Gooden is “happy and enjoying” his work as a European scout. For 18 years, he has seen players “burst on the scene and retire” and loves to be close to the game. He moved to France, and he was responsible for discovering the talented defender William Saliba and bringing him to Arsenal, Gooden’s former club.
Match-winner Andy Thomson is an assistant coach for Rangers’ women’s side.
Read more: A dream come true – Andy Thomson’s memories of the 2000 triumph
Steve Butler hasn’t been involved in football since 2011 when he was an assistant manager at Maidstone.
Paul Smith, who came off the bench against Wigan, became club captain after Hessenthaler was promoted to manager and went on to win back-to-back player-of-the-year awards for the club in 2001 and 2002. He has been out of the footballing spotlight for more than 15 years since leaving Billericay. He’s given up the goalscoring for the saddle; TheLeague Paper reported that he was helping out at his wife’s equestrian shop in 2017.
Despite not featuring for the side in the final, Super Bob Taylor played a vital part in getting Gillingham into those play-off places that got them to Wembley. After leaving the Kent side, he spent only one season at Man City and scored five goals in a year when they were promoted to the Premiership. As the honorary President of the Gillingham F.C. Supporters Club, the team has always remained in his heart.
Hessenthaler is one of the only members of the play-off winning squad to still be at the club. He leads recruitment at the club, and he assured fans he’s working to attract “more characters” to the club in a sport that is losing so much personality and identity.
Gareth Ainsworth, the newest manager appointed, hopes to bring the good times back to the Gills, and he’s certainly a character. With his slicked-back rockstar hair and his buttoned-down shirt, your last guess would be that he’s an EFL manager.
Ainsworth gets the crowd going, and there is hope that next season will be a better one. He will be able to decide his own squad, after talks of several players being out of contract in the summer.
Hessenthaler dreams of recreating that famous 2000 squad, saying: “The group of players that we had back then could play in League 2 now and be successful.
He said: “We’re a League 1 club playing in League 2. We’re underachieving and we’ve got to change for the fans.
“I love the fans to pieces, and they’ve been brilliant for me, but they need to stick with us because It’s a big summer coming up.”
