Those Were The Games
Two Christmas Crackers
Published by Eccles on December 25, 2008
Gillingham v Derby County – Wednesday December 26th 1984
Gillingham v Bristol Rovers – Saturday December 29th 1984
Christmas, we are told, is for families, so it seems strange that one of the Christmas rituals is for half of the family, mostly the male half, to clear off and watch football. Christmas football is very popular. Most clubs get their best attendance of the season for the game on Boxing Day. And when the following season’s fixtures are published, after the opening game it’s the Christmas games that everyone looks for.
The pattern of the Christmas fixtures has changed over the years. Up until 1957 it was the practice to play a game on Christmas Day, usually in the morning, with a return against the same opponents on Boxing Day. Gills’ last Christmas Day fixture was in the 1957/58 season, when a goal by Wendell Morgan forced a 1-1 draw with Queens Park Rangers. Ron Saunders scored at Loftus Road the following day to secure the same scoreline. And then two days later, being a Saturday, the pair of them scored for us again to secure a 2-1 home win against Southampton.
Christmas fixtures usually meant a home/away local derby, which can make your Christmas if you win them, or ruin Christmas if you lose. After the Christmas Day fixtures were scrapped it then meant playing the same opponents on Boxing Day and the following Saturday. Regrettably as the 1960’s wore on that arrangement caused some serious outbreaks of hooliganism as the moronic element decided to “kick off” to right perceived Boxing Day wrongs, so the home/away arrangement got dumped after 1967/68. Gills last fixture of that type was a 3-0 defeat at Brighton’s Goldstone Ground on Boxing Day 1967, and a 1-1 home draw on Saturday December 30th when a last minute wonder goal by left back Dennis Hunt stopped the Albion completing the double.
The final piece of the Christmas fixture card wasn’t put into place until 1973/74, when New Year’s Day first became a public holiday. Before that fixtures on January 1st only occurred if that happened to be a Saturday. Although Gills drew their first public holiday New Year’s Day fixture with a thrilling 3-3 draw at Newport, it initially wasn’t a lucky day for us. Our first win wasn’t until New Year’s Day 1986, but it was a good one – beating runaway leaders Reading 2-1 on their own pitch, with the winner coming from an Elsey Rocket.
But above all, the Christmas fixtures more or less mark the halfway stage of the season, and with possibly four games within a fortnight the points gained, or not gained, are markers for what the new year will bring. Everyone wants to be in a good position going into the Christmas fixtures, and an even better one coming out of them, and if you see some great games, in front of some big crowds, what more could you ask? It was the sort of position that Gills fans found themselves in as Christmas 1984 approached.
Season 1984/85 was Keith Peacock’s fourth season in charge. Keith was a hugely popular manager, as his teams always played attacking football. Sometimes their wins were fairly routine, but at other times they would win by recovering from a seemingly hopeless position, giving the crowd some unforgettable thrills in the process – none more so than when they scored four goals in the final nine minutes to win a Cup tie against Brentford. But on the other side of the coin, Peacock sides didn’t do blanket defence to grind out 0-0 draws. They could collapse just as spectacularly – none more so than in November 1984, when Gills suffered their worst defeat in 23 years when they were beaten 7-1 at York.
But no-one called for Keith to get the sack, because everyone knew that his team were just as likely to hand out seven goals to someone else the following week. The York game was a blip, and in the eight games leading up to Christmas (including two FA Cup ties) Gills won seven times. They were in the Third Round of the Cup, and had climbed to fourth in the Third Division table (top three going up). So the two home games over Christmas were vital to our hopes. The Boxing Day match saw the first ever visit to Priestfield of fallen giants Derby County and brought in the season’s best crowd of 7,140. This was a dangerous fixture. Derby were 8th in the table, and Gills needed to see them off.
Our team was:-
(4-2-4) Ron Hillyard; Mel Sage, Keith Oakes, Peter Shaw, Joe Hinnigan; Russell Musker, Dave Mehmet (Capt); Terry Cochrane, Dave Shearer, Tony Cascarino. Martin Robinson. Sub – Mark Weatherly
It was a typical Keith Peacock line-up, for apart from the back four playing the traditional defensive roles, the rest of the team were expected to bomb forward in search of goals. Leading them was Tony Cascarino, still only 22 and famously signed from West Kent side Crockenhill for a set of track-suits. Cas was powerfully built, was good in the air, and had a strong shot, without a doubt Gills hottest property and it was just a question of how long we could hang on to him (in the event we did so until 1987).
Beside him was Dave Shearer. A Scot by birth, Dave had been around the circuit a bit, and somewhere along the line had gained the nickname “Sheiky”. His alleged refuelling habits didn’t help him to keep particularly fit, and he got more than his share of injuries, but when he did get out on the field he was an electric finisher. Martin Robinson was another reliable striker whom we’d signed from Charlton. Naturally left-footed, he provided goal power down that side. And on the right side of the attack we had Terry Cochrane.
Terry was one of football’s magicians – a throw-back to the days when players could do almost anything with the ball, and often tried it during a game. With Cochrane you never quite knew what you would get, and sometimes he didn’t fancy it at all, but when he was in the mood he gave the Gills fans who saw him some unforgettable memories. For nearly three years we drooled as this slimly built right-wing genius with his shirt outside his shorts and his socks rolled down to his ankles tormented yet another full-back, finishing off with a beautiful centre or a superbly placed shot. Or perhaps he’d get fed up with it, stop the torment and then sit on the ball by the corner flag. How Keith Peacock had enticed him down to Gillingham from Middlesbrough no-one ever knew. They’d paid Burnley £238,000 for him and he was still playing internationals for Northern Ireland. It was thought that Terry had fallen out big-time with Boro’s then manager Malcolm Allison (not that difficult) but even so it was a brilliant coup to bring him to Priestfield.
Behind these four musketeers was Dave Mehmet, another superbly gifted player who had a bit of a temper to match his shock of red hair. Dave had been around a bit on the South-East London circuit, and although he was billed as a midfield player he had an excellent eye for goal and scored 39 in his stay of just over three years. The rest of the team were steady players who got on with it, and you certainly needed them to balance the mercurial talent up front .
Gills started well, with Dave Mehmet’s promptings helping Cas and Sheiky Shearer to give the Rams rearguard an early workout. But it soon looked pretty clear that Derby were in a somewhat lower league position than they deserved, for they steadied themselves and started taking the game to the Gills. The first serious chance for either side came when Derby’s Kevin Wilson brought an excellent save out of Ron Hillyard, making the Gills custodian stretch to tip a swirling shot over the bar.
Gills upped their own game, and after twenty-five minutes Tony Cascarino sent Terry Cochrane away down the right, and his beautiful centre was headed inside the Gillingham End far post by Dave Shearer. 1-0 to the Gills. Cas then had an excellent chance to get on the score-sheet himself, but he drove the chance wide. With eight minutes to go before half-time the Gills defence suddenly started to look uncomfortable and Peter Shaw conceded a free-kick right on the edge of the box when he bundled over striker Bobby Davison. Derby’s Buckley showed a bit of higher division class when he lobbed the ball over the wall and inside Ron Hillyard’s far post. All square at half-time.
With the floodlights taking over from the fading sunlight and the teams well-poised this game was shaping up well for an exciting second half. Both teams went for the advantage, and for the first fifteen minutes it was end to end stuff with both goalkeepers making some good saves. And then, after sixty minutes, Derby sent a long raking ball into the Gillingham End goalmouth. Ron Hillyard went up for it, Davison challenged him and bundled it into the net using his hand. It appeared that the referee and the linesman were the only ones in the ground who didn’t see it, and a goal was given. Gillingham 1, Derby County 2,
Everybody went ballistic and none more so than captain Dave Mehmet. He stalked Davison around the field, and within minutes he’d taken retribution with a two-footed tackle on the offending Derby striker, right in front of the Main Stand. Our captain must surely walk for that, and as the referee ran up and brandished the red card, Mehmet peeled his shirt off, rolled it into a ball, and chucked it into the referee’s face. Then he stormed off down the tunnel, the red hairs on his bare chest bristling in righteous indignation. Blimey, how many weeks suspension would that lot cost us, but what an exit! The referee kept his dignity, swaying back a bit such that he caught Dave’s shirt on his chest, and then let it slowly fall off him onto the ground. He then growled to a steward “Remove that shirt immediately” and a somewhat sheepish-looking bloke in an orange jacket wandered on to retrieve it. And then the game proceeded with a Derby County free-kick.
But it wasn’t a football match any more. It was now a straight-forward Christmas pantomime battle between the forces of good and evil. From all sides the crowd rose up as one to roar forward the ten Good Men of Gillingham, demanding that they vanquished devious dastardly Derby County and their pliant captive referee. And in one of those purple passages of play that Keith Peacock sides were renowned for, the Gills did just that. Although Derby had hit the bar soon after the Mehmet exit, they were forced back and back as Gills just piled it on. An equaliser simply had to come, and with fifteen minutes to go Joe Hinnigan got on the end of Terry Cochrane’s free kick and sent one of his trade-mark looping headers over the line of defenders. It hit the inside of the post and was in. With ten men your full-back, in the centre forward position, grabs the equaliser. We certainly weren’t defensive-minded under Keith Peacock.
Ten-man Gillingham simply wouldn’t let up, and in particular Terry Cochrane’s dribbles and crosses were taunting Derby unmercifully as ever heavier pressure was applied. Something surely had to give, and with a few minutes to go, it did. Sheiky Shearer pounced on a loose ball in the six yard box and stabbed it into the Rainham End net. 3-2 to the Gills. Hurrah! The forces of good had triumphed over the dark forces of evil and all was right with the world. Hurrah! (And then we all went home to tea.)
That win pushed us up to second in the table with thirty-nine points and in the next match, on the Saturday after Christmas, Gills were home to fourth-placed Bristol Rovers, who were just a point behind. The team was unchanged from the romp with Derby County, for in those days suspensions didn’t have immediate effect and so Dave Mehmet was able to play. (He finished up with a four match ban for his shirt-throwing activities, which was probably quite lenient given the circumstances) Both sides needed to win this one, and 6,598 were in to see it. Gills started well, and were ahead after only seven minutes. Rovers’ keeper Cashley made a fine save from a Mehmet snap shot, to concede a corner. Terry Cochrane’s flag-kick was nodded on by Peter Shaw, and Joe Hinnigan looped another header over defenders and in off the far post.
It was a terrific start, but Rovers hit back hard and were stretching Gillingham’s defence with some piercing runs. It was no surprise when they equalised after fifteen minutes when we got caught short at the back and Stevens, their striker, crashed a shot past Ron Hillyard from a centre. Gills responded magnificently to that, when just two minutes later Terry Cochrane deceived the visitors with a short corner. Russell Musker hammered the ball low into the ruck of players in the six yard box, it got half cleared and Dave Shearer pounced and whipped the ball into the net before Rovers knew what was happening. A real poacher’s goal from Sheiky that one.
Once again Rovers started to make the running, and for the rest of the half they had slightly the better of things.. It was hearts in mouths when Ron Hillyard could only parry a stinging shot upwards. It hit the bar, and rebounded straight back into Ron’s arms. Maybe Rovers started to think it wasn’t going to be their day – and five minutes into the second half they knew it. Gills were attacking the Rainham End. Russell Musker broke down the left and sent over a long cross looking for Tony Cascarino. Keeper Cashley raced out to the edge of his area, and got a clean punch on the ball, sending it over towards the dug-out in front of the Gordon Road Stand. Unfortunately for him, it landed at Terry Cochrane’s feet. Terry trapped it, knocked it just in front of him to set it up, and then sent over a 45 yard lob which was bang on target for the Rainham End goal. The keeper and two defenders raced back in desperation but there was nothing they could do. The ball dropped over them, bounced just in front of the goal-line, and carried on into the net. A magical and inspirational goal that has passed into legend..
It finished off Bristol Rovers, that’s for sure. Although they tried hard to cut the arrears Gills were now playing well within themselves, and always seemed to have the extra man available at the back to snuff out any dangerous attacks. After seventy-three minutes Terry Cochrane was producing some magic again, this time planting a free-kick on the left straight onto Martin Robinson’s head. He comfortably made it 4-1, and that was the final score.
Once more, as so often in Keith Peacock’s reign, Gills fans went home to dream that this would at last be the season. And once more the roof fell in. The New Year’s Day game was at mid-table Bournemouth, a ground where Gills usually did well. Not on this occasion. Two early goals, one an extremely dubious penalty, and an awful display of refereeing saw a 2-0, defeat, Dave Shearer and Terry Cochrane sent off, and Gills finishing a game with nine men for the first time in their history. Snow and ice limited the fixtures in January and February but by early March 1985, when Gills faced runaway leaders Bradford City at Valley Parade on Match Of The Day they were still in second place. A 1-1 draw augured well for the run-in, and even Jimmy Hill was enthusing.
We blew up. What became known as the March Madness kicked in, the three clubs who eventually went up – Bradford City, Millwall and Hull – broke clear and Gillingham finished fourth. The 83 points and the club record 10 away wins in 1984/85 would have comfortably made the play-offs in later years, or possibly an automatic promotion with three straight up. History repeated itself in the two following seasons when once again Gills had some brilliant patches to get into a great position, had a bad March and then had to play catch up. 1985/86 saw 79 points and fifth place, and 1986/87 78 points and fifth place again, although this time that was enough to qualify for another shot at promotion via the newly introduced play-offs.
In the grand scheme of things the two Christmas games of 1984.are two more games that helped Gills along the way to one of their best-ever points totals. But looked at more closely, these games illustrate better than most exactly what watching the Gills under Keith Peacock’s management was all about – stunning goals and exciting charismatic players, with a bit of genius, indiscipline and frustration mixed in. You never knew exactly what you’d get, good or bad, but there’d always be plenty to talk about afterwards.