August–December

Gillingham's first match of the season was away to Crewe Alexandra on 25 August.^[8] Due to injuries sustained in pre-season, Alan Wilks and Keith Lindsey, both regular starters in the previous season, were absent from the team; Gillingham lost the match 1–0.^[9][10] Both players returned to the team a week later for the first game of the season at Gillingham's home ground, Priestfield Stadium. The game against Newport County resulted in a 1–1 draw;^[11] Brian Yeo scored Gillingham's goal, his 100th Football League goal for the club, making him the second Gillingham player to reach this milestone.^[12] Gillingham won their next two matches, including a 7–2 win at home to Scunthorpe United on 12 September, the highest number of goals scored by the team in a Football League match since 1951.^[8][13] Yeo scored a hat-trick to take his total to five goals in the last three games and break the record held by Brian Gibbs for the highest number of Football League goals scored for Gillingham.^[8][12][14]

Gillingham ended September with another high-scoring win, defeating Doncaster Rovers 5–1;^[8] at the end of the month Gillingham were 10th out of 24 teams in the Fourth Division league table.^[15] The team lost for the third time in the first ten league games of the season when they were defeated 2–1 by Exeter City on 6 October,^[8] after which they had dropped to 13th in the table,^[16] but then began a run of 20 league games without defeat.^[8] A week after the defeat to Exeter, Gillingham beat Bury 3–0, and in their next game they beat Chester 4–2.^[8] Yeo scored twice in both games, taking his tally of league goals for the season to 12 in 12 games.^[8] Coxhill made his first appearance in the starting line-up in a 1–1 draw away to Scunthorpe on 23 October and was a regular starter for the remainder of the season.^[11] At the end of October, Gillingham were in seventh place in the Fourth Division table,^[17] one point below the four promotion positions.^[18]

During November and December Gillingham played nine matches, winning seven and drawing two.^[8] The team began November with a 1–0 win away to Reading and followed this with victories at home to Torquay United and Workington.^[8] The final game of the month was a 2–2 draw away to Mansfield Town.^[8] Yeo scored in all four games, including twice against Torquay; against Workington, Wilks scored Gillingham's second hat-trick of the season.^[8] Gillingham won their first four matches of December,^[8] including a 4–1 victory on 8 December over Colchester United, who had been top of the table ahead of the game;^[19] the attendance of 8,411 was more than 1,600 higher than any other home game to that point in the season.^[20] On 26 December this figure was eclipsed when a crowd of 11,313 saw Gillingham defeat Northampton Town 3–1 with another hat-trick from Yeo.^[8][21] It was the first attendance of more than 10,000 at Priestfield since a game against the same opposition in 1971.^[22] Gillingham's final match of 1973 was at home to Swansea City on 29 December and ended in a 1–1 draw,^[8] which left Gillingham second in the Fourth Division, one point behind leaders Colchester.^[23]

January–May

Gillingham began 1974 with two consecutive draws and then beat Darlington 3–1 on 12 January;^[8] it was the last game that highly rated defender David Peach played for the club as he was transferred to Southampton of the First Division for £50,000 (equivalent to £550,000 in 2021), a new record for the highest fee received by Gillingham for a player.^[20][24][25] In his absence, Glenn Aitken became the regular starter at left back.^[26] On 20 January, the first Football League game to be played at Priestfield on a Sunday took place; playing on Sunday had been prohibited until January 1974 when the Football League agreed to allow Sunday matches for the first time, and Priestfield was one of twelve grounds to host a game on the first available Sunday.^[27] At the end of January, Gillingham were still second in the table, now three points behind Colchester United albeit with the advantage of having played one fewer game.^[28]

Gillingham began February with victories over Lincoln City and Hartlepool to take their unbeaten league run to 20 games,^[20][29] but then lost 3–2 away to Bury,^[30] their first defeat in the Fourth Division since the previous October.^[8] Gillingham won their next game, defeating Exeter, and remained second in the table at the end of the month.^[8][31] The team's first game of March was a goalless draw away to Northampton, the first game in which Gillingham had failed to score a goal since the previous October,^[20] although the single point they gained for the draw brought them level on points with first-placed Colchester.^[32] Gillingham remained behind the league leaders only on goal average despite losing their next game 2–0 away to Stockport County.^[20][33] The team then won two consecutive games 1–0, Richardson scoring the winning goal in both matches,^[20] after which they were top of the Fourth Division table.^[34] They then lost two consecutive games and ended March back in second place, three points behind Colchester.^[20][35]

Gillingham began April with a home game against Peterborough United; Peterborough were third in the table going into the match, behind Gillingham only on goal average.^[36] The game between the two promotion-chasing teams drew an attendance of 12,297, the largest crowd of the season at Priestfield.^[20] A goal from Lindsey gave Gillingham a 1–0 victory,^[37] but the team drew their next two games and Peterborough overtook them to move into second place. On 20 April, Gillingham defeated Colchester 2–0, Yeo scoring both goals; the result meant that third-placed Gillingham could no longer be overtaken by any team outside the top four and were thus guaranteed promotion to the Third Division at the end of the season.^[38] Yeo scored his 31st league goal of the season in the 2–0 win over Lincoln on 24 April, equalling the club record set by Ernie Morgan in the 1954–55 season.^[39] Despite playing in both the remaining games of the season, he failed to score the goal which would give him the record outright.^[8] The team's final game of the season was away to Peterborough United;^[8] immediately before the game, Gillingham were top of the table, one point ahead of second-placed Peterborough, although Peterborough had the advantage that they had two more games still to play after the match against Gillingham.^[40] Gillingham lost the game 4–2, meaning that Peterborough overtook them and won the Fourth Division championship;^[41] Gillingham finished the season in second place, three points behind Peterborough and two ahead of third-placed Colchester.^[42] It was only the second time in 42 seasons in the Football League that Gillingham had gained promotion to a higher division.^[1]

Match details

Key

Partial league table

FA Cup

As a Fourth Division club, Gillingham entered the 1973–74 FA Cup in the first round but were beaten 3–2 by Cambridge United of the Third Division.^[18][20]

Football League Cup

Gillingham entered the 1973–74 Football League Cup at the first round stage and were paired with fellow Fourth Division team Colchester United. Gillingham won the match at Priestfield 4–2 to progress to the second round, where they were drawn to play Carlisle United of the Second Division, again at home. Gillingham were beaten 2–1 by their higher-division opponents and eliminated from the competition.^[18][20]