Marked for Sullivan Booth
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
Sullivan Booth damages knee ligaments — 15 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 15 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Omar Beckles commits to Gillingham for another 2 years.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Ajay Matthews falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Everybody at Gillingham saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 38 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Market12 Oct 2026
He is 20, and nobody at Gillingham signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Market12 Oct 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Will Murdock asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Oct 2026
23 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Gillingham lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Transfer targets5 Oct 2026
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad5 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gillingham this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match3 Oct 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Ronan Hale’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Gillingham.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes of Dixon Vera at his very best
Marked 8.57. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Gillingham.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Eli King slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Eli King is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad5 Oct 2026
15 new faces, and Gillingham are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Will Murdock dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑1, already talking about the next one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Sullivan Booth
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gillingham lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Ben Garrity in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gillingham this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match26 Sep 2026
A 1‑0 win over Fleetwood Town, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Eli King is still paying for one afternoon at Gillingham
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A mark of 7.58, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Anthony Howard on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Eli King knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Gillingham, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A day to forget for Eli King
Marked 4.50, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Sullivan Booth
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gillingham lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match19 Sep 2026
Bristol Rovers go through and Gillingham go home, 0‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Jake Turner decides it from twelve yards
1 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Ethan Bristow and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
No hiding place for Eli King
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Eli King, and the manager let it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Dixon Vera beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
The kick that got away from Armani Little
Twelve yards, a goalkeeper guessing, and it still did not go in. He will take the next one, and every soul in the ground will hold their breath.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Anthony Howard left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Sep 2026
47 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Gillingham lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market14 Sep 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Gillingham, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Ben Garrity and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Gillingham asked and Portsmouth said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match12 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ben Garrity. 2‑1 against Cheltenham Town, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
The crowd has taken to Dixon Vera
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Dixon Vera was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.18. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Anthony Howard could afford to be generous.