Priestfield  Stadium, Gillingham
Championship League v Yeovil Town
Saturday, October 15th 2005, 3pm
By Henry Willard

I'd been looking forward to this game for quite a while, & set off by train up to Gillingham for the day's match. I'd brought my mate along for some company so all was good, until we found out that there were no trains to Gillingham due to engineering works... bit of a setback we thought, but there was a temporary bus service running which was really sufficient & got us on our way to the train station in Gillingham, from where we then set off to The Livingstone Arms pub just 100yrds or so from the ground. This was packed full of away fans which was nice to see & had a god selection of beers as well as several TV screens to watch the early kick-off games, in this case Wigan v Newcastle.

At about 1:30 we decided to head for the ground just up the road, had to queue for about 10 minutes but there were 3 turnstiles open so it wasn't too bad. Paid £13 each to get in as well which wasn't a bad price at all. When we were in it was a bit confusing as to where we were supposed to go... I couldn't even find where they were selling the match programmes! Asked a steward in the end who pointed us over to the refreshment area where there was a little table tucked away selling them. We went on through towards the pitch by following a path underneath the mass of scaffolding supporting the away stand, & the seating layout seemed a bit confusing, but again asked a steward to point us in the right direction, which it seemed all the travelling supporters were doing!

It was a lovely sunny day but there was a nippy wind every now & again which got to you - The uncovered makeshift stand with no windbreakers seemed just about adequate though. The ground filled up to just over half full, & the game got underway with very little atmosphere around. It was virtually impossible to get any noise from the away end, which was surprising as our fans are usually very vocal! The stand was split into several sections & so it was disappointing that we couldn't really generate much noise.

Not much to shout about in the first half, so thank god for the food! The service was pretty fast, the two teenagers doing a good job serving everyone efficiently. The cheeseburger I had was £2.00 & absolutely delicious! By far the best on my travels. I could do with another one right now actually... mmm... My mate had a Steak pie I think & he seemed extremely satisfied as well, so that was possibly the best part of the day...

  

In the end the game finished 0-0 with the ref putting in an extremely poor performance it must be said, although the one right decision he made was sending off a Gills player for 2 bookable offences. After the game we headed down to the station again & hung around for 15mins or so waiting for a bus to Rochester to show up do we could get back towards London, & we ended up on a double decker with both sets of fans up on the top deck. A very funny & light-hearted journey back to Rochester gave us something to smile about after a pretty dull match, & the rest of the journey home went without disruption.

So overall not a bad ground, although I'd be surprised if your club's away fans can get some noise from that away stand, which to be honest wasn't that great, although the facilities weren't too bad, the refreshments being top class & the toilets quite spacious, despite them not actually having a fully completed roof, with the wooden beams still visible. I encountered no trouble on the day, & the stewards seemed helpful enough, & if the game's pretty dire for the first 45 minutes, you can always go put a smile on your face by grabbing yourself a damn good cheeseburger!

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