August–December

The team's first game of the Third Division season was away to Lincoln City on 17 August;^[10] Elsey made his debut in the starting line-up.^[11] Gillingham finished the game with ten men after Terry Cochrane was sent off and lost 1–0.^[12] Seven days later the team played their first home league game of the season at Priestfield against Darlington;^[10] Mel Sage scored Gillingham's first league goal of the season in a 1–1 draw.^[11] For the second consecutive game Gillingham had a player sent off, as Peter Shaw was dismissed.^[13] Two days later, Gillingham won their first league game of the season, defeating Bristol City 2–1 away from home with two goals from Tony Cascarino, and ended August by beating Bolton Wanderers by the same score at Priestfield.^[14] Gillingham extended their unbeaten league run to seven games with draws against Notts County and Chesterfield and wins over Wigan Athletic and Bury,^[10] after which they were fourth in the league table.^[15]

Gillingham's unbeaten Third Division run ended with a 2–1 defeat at home to York City on 28 September and the team also lost the first game of October, being defeated 3–0 away to Plymouth Argyle.^[10] After the two defeats, Gillingham had slipped to ninth in the table.^[16] The team won consecutive games in mid-October against Cardiff City and AFC Bournemouth before losing 2–1 at Priestfield against fellow promotion contenders Derby County.^[17] Gillingham's last game of October was at home to Swansea City; top goalscorer Cascarino was suspended after being sent off in a Football League Cup game.^[18] Despite his absence, the team won 5–1, their biggest win of the season so far. Dave Shearer scored the team's only hat-trick of the season.^[10] The result left Gillingham sixth in the table, albeit only one point behind second-placed Blackpool.^[19]

The team were undefeated in five league games in November, including three consecutive victories in which they scored a total of 12 goals.^[10] On 9 November, Gillingham scored five goals for the second consecutive home game, beating Walsall 5–2, and followed the win by defeating Wolverhampton Wanderers 3–1 away from home and Doncaster Rovers 4–0 at Priestfield,^[10] after which the team were third in the table, behind second-placed York only on goal difference.^[20] The unbeaten run ended with a 1–0 defeat away to Bristol Rovers on 14 December and Gillingham then lost 3–2 away to Darlington six days later.^[10] The team ended the year with a 1–1 draw at home to Bristol City; Cascarino scored Gillingham's goal to take his total of league goals for the season to 10.^[10] The result left Gillingham eighth in the table at the end of 1985, four points below the three promotion places.^[21]

January–May

Gillingham began 1986 with an away game against Reading, who had lost only twice in 24 Third Division games and were top of the table, 19 points clear of second-placed Derby.^[21] Goals from Byrne and Elsey gave Gillingham a 2–1 victory over the league leaders.^[22][23] Wins away to Bolton Wanderers and at home to Lincoln City took Gillingham up to second in the table.^[24] The team began February with a 4–0 win at home to Notts County and a 2–0 victory against Bournemouth.^[10] Gillingham remained unbeaten until the end of February, taking their total of consecutive Third Division games without defeat to nine;^[10] Peacock was awarded the Third Division Manager of the Month award for February.^[25] On 1 March, Gillingham were defeated for the first time in 1986, losing 2–0 away to York.^[26] This game was the first in a run of six consecutive matches without a win,^[10] which resulted in Gillingham dropping to fifth in the table.^[27]

Cascarino suffered a serious injury in the defeat to Brentford on 18 March and would miss the remainder of the season.^[13] Shortly before the transfer deadline, the last date in the season on which clubs could sign new players, two players signed for Gillingham. David Tong, a midfielder, joined the club from Bristol City on a short-term contract until the end of the season and Dale Tempest, a forward, arrived on a one-month loan from Huddersfield Town.^[28] Both went straight into the starting line-up for the game at home to Reading on 29 March.^[11] Tempest scored two goals in a 3–0 victory which made Gillingham the only team of the season to defeat the eventual Third Division champions both at home and away.^[29] Gillingham followed the result with a second consecutive victory, beating Brentford 2–1, to end March third in the table.^[10][30] The team achieved a third consecutive win when they beat Rotherham United 3–0 on 4 April before their winning run ended with a defeat away to Derby, which was followed immediately by another against Walsall.^[10] Commenting on the match against Derby, Simon O'Hagan of The Times wrote that Gillingham, who could normally be "dangerously inventive", were hampered by terrible weather conditions.^[31] The next game finished 4–1 to Walsall, the most goals Gillingham had conceded in a game since November 1984.^[32] The result left Gillingham in fifth place, two points off the promotion places, although they were at a disadvantage as they had played at least two games more than all the teams above them.^[33]

Gillingham won their next two games but then lost 1–0 at home to Newport County on 29 April;^[10] midfielder Dave Mehmet took over in goal during the game when Ron Hillyard was injured.^[34] It was the first time the team had failed to score in a home game since a defeat to Burnley in March 1984; the run of 62 consecutive home games in which the team scored at least one goal was a new club record.^[35] The result, along with those achieved on the same night by Plymouth and Wigan, left Gillingham four points below the promotion places and therefore, with only one game remaining and a maximum of three points available, unable to finish in the top three.^[36] In the final game of the season, Gillingham defeated Bristol Rovers 2–0 at home with goals from Martin Robinson and Mehmet; the second goal was the 102nd scored by the team during the season in all competitions, the highest figure in a single season since the club joined the Football League.^[37] The team finished 5th in the Third Division, five points short of promotion.^[38]

Match results

Key

Partial league table

FA Cup

As a Third Division team, Gillingham entered the 1985–86 FA Cup in the first round and were drawn to play Northampton Town of the Fourth Division. Cascarino, Mehmet and Cochrane scored to give Gillingham a 3–0 win.^[40][41] In the second round, Gillingham played Bognor Regis Town of the Isthmian League; before the game Bognor manager Jack Pearce commented on Gillingham's recent levels of goalscoring, telling the press, "The reports I've had from my spies are frightening. The way Gillingham are scoring goals we will have to board our goals up."^[42] Cascarino scored twice as Gillingham defeated the semi-professional team 6–1.^[41][43] The teams from the top two divisions of the Football League entered the competition at the third-round stage; Gillingham missed out on higher-level opposition and were paired with fellow Third Division side Derby County.^[44] The initial match at Priestfield drew an attendance of 8,983, Gillingham's largest home crowd of the season.^[38] The game ended in a 1–1 draw, necessitating a replay at Derby's Baseball Ground.^[45] The score was again 1–1 at the end of the regulation 90 minutes; the rules of the competition meant that on this occasion 30 minutes of extra time were played, during which Derby scored twice more to win 3–1 and eliminate Gillingham from the competition.^[44][46]

Football League Cup

Gillingham entered the 1985–86 Football League Cup in the first round, being drawn against Southend United of the Fourth Division. The first round was played over two legs. The first leg at Southend's Roots Hall ground ended 1–1, and Gillingham won the second leg at Priestfield 2–0 with two goals from Cascarino to secure a 3–1 victory on aggregate.^[48][49] In the second round Gillingham played Portsmouth of the Second Division. The higher-level team won 3–1 at Priestfield in the first leg and 2–1 at their own Fratton Park ground in the second to eliminate Gillingham from the competition by an aggregate score of 5–2.^[50][51] Cascarino was sent off in the second leg; manager Peacock wrote in his next programme notes that, although he had never previously commented publicly on the dismissal of one of his players, on this occasion he wished to state that he viewed Cascarino's sending off as "totally undeserved".^[18]

Associate Members' Cup

The 1985–86 Associate Members' Cup, a tournament exclusively for Third and Fourth Division teams, began with a preliminary round in which the teams were drawn into groups of three, contested on a round-robin basis; Gillingham's group also contained fellow Third Division sides Derby County and Brentford.^[53] Gillingham's first match of the tournament was away to Derby and came just nine days after the FA Cup third round replay between the two teams. On this occasion Gillingham won 2–0 with goals from Robinson and Cascarino.^[54] Seven days later Gillingham played Brentford at Priestfield; the attendance of 1,464 was Gillingham's lowest crowd of the season.^[38] The match finished 1–1, giving Gillingham four points from their two games; as Brentford's game against Derby ended in a draw, Gillingham topped the group and progressed to the southern section quarter-finals.^[55]

Gillingham's next opponents were Cambridge United of the Fourth Division; the game, held at Priestfield on 24 January, again drew an attendance of less than 2,000. Goals from Paul Collins and Joe Hinnigan secured a 2–0 win for Gillingham.^[56] The southern section semi-final did not take place until April and paired Gillingham with fellow Third Division side Bristol City.^[57] Hinnigan was sent off for a foul on Steve Neville, which assistant manager Taylor described in his next programme notes as "totally unjust",^[58] and the game ended 3–0 to Bristol City, ending Gillingham's participation in the tournament; Bristol City went on to win the Associate Members' Cup final at Wembley Stadium.^[59]