3rd September 1999
3rd September 1999 Neither player made the trip south this afternoon, even though Salt has started the last two games and McNiven the last three. In come Steve Whitehall, Ryan Sugden and Paul Beavers — who missed the midweek reserve-team game because Ritchie said he wasn't fit enough to play. Mark Innes is poised for a recall, Paul Rickers will move back into defence and the experiment of playing John Sheridan at sweeper looks set to be abandoned after a single game. Athletic's record of no points and no goals in four matches is reflected by Ritchie's uncertainty over his strongest line-up.
He has an extra incentive to find the winning formula tomorrow as never in their history have Athletic started the league season with five defeats. The defensive system they operate will depend on Sheridan and Lee Duxbury, two midfield players who switched to centre-back at Oxford last week. At least one will revert to his favoured position, with the versatile Rickers likely to make way and move to full-back. It is up front where Ritchie faces his greatest dilemma and, in a bid to end the drought, he has called five centre-forwards into his 16-strong squad.
With McNiven surprisingly dropped, Mark Allott is a probable starter, but his partner could be Beavers, Sugden, Whitehall or Matthew Tipton. Beavers comes in from the cold despite the fitness worries which still surround him, while Sugden and Tipton — a scorer in the reserves this week — are the teenagers hoping for a second start of the campaign. Whitehall's return to fitness is a big lift for the manager, who believes his experience can make a difference. Goalkeeper John Mohan (18) earns a first call-up as David Miskelly is away with Northern Ireland under-21s.
ATHLETIC (from): Kelly, Rickers, Holt, S McNiven, Garnett, Innes, Sheridan, Duxbury, Adams, Allott, Whitehall, Beavers, Tipton, Sugden, Tait, Mohan.
Next-to-bottom Gillingham moved to end their slump yesterday by signing Manny Omoyimni, a lightning-fast West Ham striker, on loan with a view to a permanent transfer. Junior Agogo, the Sheffield Wednesday striker who had a loan spell with Athletic earlier in the season, has joined Chester City on a similar basis.
PRESS the memory rewind button and go back to May 30, 1999. The venue is Wembley Stadium and Gillingham have just scored twice in six minutes to lead Manchester City 2-0 in the division two play-off final. As the match entered injury time, who would have believed that Athletic would be playing The Gills three months later in a match featuring two sides in the second division’s embryonic relegation zone? Not Gillingham, that’s for sure. But a goal in the 90th minute and one four minutes into injury time forced them into extra time and they were finally condemned to an astonishing defeat by City’s calmer nerves in an equally-dramatic penalty shoot-out. Now they are languishing second from bottom, one place above tomorrow’s visitors Athletic, after three draws and two defeats in their first five games. Gillingham, it seems, have fallen prey to one of football’s most perverse laws — what doesn’t quite go up must fight against going down.
A number of teams have found that the heartbreak of such cruel disappointment lingers too long in the memory. And Peter Taylor, who took over at the Priestfield Stadium in the summer, faces an unenviable task to coax his players into emerging all the stronger for their nasty experience. Taylor also has a lot to live up to after the rein of previous manager Tony Pulis. Gillingham were in the basement division when Pulis took the hot seat in 1995, but he soon won them promotion as runners-up behind Preston. They consolidated in the following two seasons before hitting the skids at the start of last term and looking liable to head back down. One victory in the first eight games didn’t bode at all well for Pulis, but striker Robert Taylor’s late winner against Burnley was the catalyst for a complete transformation. They lost only once more before March — a 1-0 reverse at promoted Walsall — and were never out of the play-off positions after mid-November.
Even after that last-gasp disintegration at Wembley, Gillingham looked capable of using their powerful, athletic game to launch another promotion assault in the new campaign. But Pulis, who was often at loggerheads with chairman Paul Scally, was suddenly booted out for gross misconduct, that ever-mysterious offence which could mean anything but actually tells you nothing. While the dust settled, in rode Taylor, who had a four-game loan spell with Athletic back in 1983. And here was another man who had been sacked without anyone really knowing why. He had been the England under-21 manager and, while Glenn Hoddle’s senior side sometimes struggled, Taylor was showing his former Tottenham team-mate exactly how to get results in international football. He was popular with the players, enormously successful in the job and, apparently, not good enough for the FA. So he instead returned to club football and a Gillingham team which, despite the rocky start, is still fancied to come good. But they have a major obstacle to overcome in the shape of Carl Asaba’s injury.
The striker, who could be out until January with a groin problem, scored 21 goals last season and was among the most feared hitmen in the division. His partner was 18-goal Robert Taylor, whose memorable strike against Athletic during The Gills’ 4-1 win in April was one of the best seen at Boundary Park all season. Yet it was nowhere near being the highlight of Taylor’s year as, back in February, he had shown his liking for meeting Burnley by hitting five goals in one game, including a hat-trick in seven minutes. The big ex-Brentford man asked to go on the transfer list during the summer, consequently missing much of Gillingham’s pre-season build-up. He has now patched up his differences with Taylor and the result has been a goal in each of the last three games, beginning against third division Brighton in a 4-0 aggregate win in the Worthington Cup. New faces for a new season include two former non-league players in Barry Miller, signed from Farnborough, and Junior Lewis, from Hendon. Brian McGlinchey arrived from Port Vale and Christian Lee from Northampton, while the only cash outlay was for Andy Thomson, who is doing his best to replace Asaba after moving from Oxford for £20,000.