Those Were The Games
Barry Town Stomp
Published by Eccles on March 19, 2009
Barry Town v Gillingham – Saturday March 15th 1947
Like most football teams, myths have grown up around Gillingham that are often not born out by the facts – for example the belief that Gills always concede last minute goals away from home and lose from a winning position. If that indeed happened every time, then the Gills would never ever win a game away from home. But perhaps the truths behind these myths lie in some of the extraordinary games from the past, like the one that was played in 1947 at Barry Town.
The 1946/47 season saw Gills back in the Southern League. Ignominiously kicked out of the Football League in 1938 and on the brink of extinction when the Second World War broke out, the club had been reborn under manager Archie Clark. Storming through the Kent League in 1945/46 Gills were now carrying all before them in the Southern League – no more so than in November 1946 when Gloucester City were thrashed 12-1 at Priestfield in what is still Gills’ greatest-ever competitive win.
But although the 1946/47 season marked the full return of football after the War and the crowds watching it were enormous, plenty of wartime austerity measures were still in place. As 1946 turned to 1947, to the problems of rationing, travel restrictions and food and fuel shortages were added the ravages of an arctic winter. For the best part of two months the country ground to a halt as coal supplies ran out, power stations broke down, and water pipes froze. Football pretty much ground to a halt too.
In those days it was a sense of pride to get a match on in whatever weather, but the snow, ice and frost defeated just about everyone. It was a big blow to League front runners like Gillingham, who feared that a long break would disrupt their run for the title. Eventually, the arctic conditions lifted and the fixture list resumed, and for one of the first games after the thaw set in Gills found themselves facing a long and difficult trip to South Wales to face Barry Town. Both teams were in the leading pack at the top of the Southern League and Barry expected a crowd of around 4,000 to show up for this one. But a five-hour blizzard had struck South Wales that morning, and by the time the game kicked off only 400 hardy coal-mining souls had turned up to see it.
The Gillingham side that arrived to do battle that day after a long train journey from Paddington contained some of our post-war greats. There was Charlie Marks, talismanic right-back with a cannon-ball delivery from dead-ball situations. Later in his Gills career, Charlie broke Northampton’s net with a penalty. There was Tommy “Tug” Wilson, affectionately known as “The Little General” by the fans, a superb playmaker with an eye for goal. And up front was the lethal combination of Jackie Briggs and Hughie Russell. One of our greatest-ever goalscorers, Hughie had smashed in NINE in the 12-1 demolition of Gloucester City a few months before, and then had almost broken the bar going for his tenth.
Our full team was :
(Traditional 2-3-5) Fred Edwards; Charlie Marks, Cyril Poole; Jimmy Boswell, Tommy Kingsnorth, George Piper; Vic Hole, Tug Wilson, Hughie Russell, Jackie Briggs, Johnny Warsap.
The morning blizzard had left a good three inches of snow on the pitch, and in the penalty areas where it had been cleared there was a deadly mix of mud, slush and ice. If all that didn’t make conditions difficult, a strong biting win blew straight down the pitch. Gills chose to play with the wind in the first half, and not surprisingly both teams spent the first fifteen minutes trying to get to grips with the conditions. Then suddenly the Gills got into their stride. Putting together some sweeping attacking moves with Jimmy Boswell and Tug Wilson through the middle, and Johnny Warsap and Vic Hole down the wings, they completely destroyed Barry, and in six minutes Gills scored four times! Hughie Russell bagged a hat-trick and a mazy ice-defying run by Tug Wilson which ended in a curling shot gave Gills a 4-0 lead after twenty-five minutes.
A match-winning position surely – but it got better. Gills roared on. Before half-time, Hughie Russell had headed a centre against the bar, Barry keeper Harris had made a brilliant save from a Tug Wilson special, and Jackie Briggs had rammed home a loose ball. Half time score-line – Barry Town 0, Gillingham 5.
Now came the tricky part, defending in the snow and ice against the biting wind. Initially it had little affect on the Gillingham juggernaut. Four minutes after the restart it was 6-0 to the Gills when Hughie Russell burst through and drove a shot under the keeper. Home and hosed. But wait! Two minutes later Barry scored with a hugely controversial goal. Nineteen years before the Russian linesman at Wembley came the Colliery Manager linesman at Barry. A shot from Simmonds hit the underside of the bar and bounced down on the line. The Gills defenders were convinced it wasn’t in, but the linesman and referee thought otherwise and gave a goal.
At 6-1 it shouldn’t really have mattered, but two minutes later Barry scored again through Chick, and three minutes after that Charlie Marks couldn’t get a dangerous cross from Chick under control, and it spun off Charlie’s shoulder for an own goal. Oh dear! 6-3 with over half an hour left. Showing distinct signs of panic, ten minutes later Gills gave away a penalty, and it was 6-4. Now Barry were really up for it, and with the meagre crowd really giving it everything they were tearing into the task. A fierce shot through a ruck of players took a deflection off Charlie Marks on its way in for 6-5, and then with four minutes left all hell broke loose as Barry’s Brown drove in the equaliser. Barry Town 6, Gillingham 6.
In thirty-five minutes the Gills had chucked a six goal lead – but there was more! Jackie Briggs, Vic Hole, Tug Wilson and Hughie Russell who had stood amazed as this carnage was going on, put together a stunning move which saw Hughie drift past the last two Barry defenders and ram the ball past their keeper. It was the best goal of the match to make it Barry 6, Gills 7 – but no. The linesman chalked it off for offside, despite strong protests. The game restarted with a goal kick! And then in the last minute a shot from Barry’s Simmonds scraped the outside of the post with the Gillingham defence beaten.
And so one of the most extraordinary games in the Club’s history finished 6-6. It could have been a 7-6 defeat, it should have been a 6-7 away win, and against that background the kamikaze efforts of recent times somewhat pale into insignificance. Amusingly, even more than 60 years ago the post-match bull was going strong. Trainer Albert Collins told the local paper “It was a good performance to take a point away from a team like Barry.” After leading 6-0 five minutes into the second half? Not sure about that Albert.
But make no mistake – this Gills side was a good ‘un. Despite the blip at Barry, and in a season that extended to June because of the time lost to the weather, Gills carried all before them. They won the Southern League Cup, the Kent Senior Shield, the Kent Challenge Cup, and reached the Third Round of the FA Cup beating leading Third Division South side Bristol City at Ashton Gate along the way. Then on Saturday June 14th 1947 came a golden moment in the history of Gillingham Football Club.
The final Southern League game of a marathon season saw Gillingham at home to Bedford Town. Win this and the Gills are Southern League Champions. If they slipped up Guildford City or Merthyr Tydfil would step in. In pouring rain and in front of an increasingly delirious crowd of 7,000 the Gills put the visitors to the sword, scoring six goals again, but this time, unlike Barry Town, Bedford had no reply. A brace from each of Wally Akers, Tug Wilson and Hughie Russell saw the soaked crowd sweep onto the pitch at the end and carry their heroes shoulder-high from the field as worthy champions. They had scored 103 league goals, with Hughie Russell scoring an incredible 43 in all competitions.
Everyone knew that the club had taken a big step along the road to regaining their lost place in the Football League. Two years later, 1948/49 Gillingham were Southern League Champions again and in 1950, on the strength of these successes, the dream came true. The Gills were voted back into the Football League – the only club ever to achieve that distinction before the automatic elevation arrangements were introduced in 1987. And in spite of a few scares along the way have never had to apply for re-election since.
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