Western League
Division 1
Tuesday 14th September 2021
Kick Off 19.45 Actual 19.44
Gillingham Town 1 Wells City 1, attendance 97 (official)
43’ 1-0
74’ 1-1
@ Woodwater Lane
off Harding’s Lane
Gillingham
SP8 4WL
£5 Admission
£2 Programme, 20 pages.
Gillingham Town moved to their new ground back in 2018. With their old ground in Harding’s Lane (visited 24th September 2005, for a 6–0 win versus Poole Borough in the Dorset Premier League), which you pass a couple of hundred yards up the road, having floodlights, it seemed logical that they would eventually get floodlights at the new ground as well, so I thought I’d wait to tick it off for a midweek match. I didn’t think it would take them this long, but tonight was finally their first floodlit match at their new home. It attracted their biggest home crowd of the season so far, beating the previous best by 30, aided by 15-20 ground hoppers in attendance.
The match itself wasn’t great and was certainly nothing like the quality that the Western League matches produced when I visited many of the grounds in my early years of ground hopping. Then again, having lost the likes of Tiverton Town, Taunton Town, Clevedon Town, Mangotsfield United etc, then perhaps it’s not surprising. Wells created, but wasted, enough chances to win half a dozen matches. Gillingham didn’t create much at all, but a cracking free kick saw them take the lead just before halftime. Wells finally converted a chance with sixteen minutes left, when a scramble in the box finished with a shot fired high into the roof of the net.
The old ground in Harding’s Lane is still pretty much as it was when Gillingham moved out back in 2018, as seen in the photo below.
