The Football Club was absolutely delighted to host an anniversary dinner at MEMS Priestfield Stadium on Saturday night, with members of our 1999-2000 promotion winning team returning for a special reunion event.
May 28th marked 25 years to the day since Gillingham defeated Wigan at Wembley to gain promotion to the old first division (now Championship), and several of the players, along with former manager Peter Taylor, were at MEMS Priestfield Stadium to mark the occasion.
The event, which was sponsored by MEMS Power Generation, saw nine of the starting XI at Wembley return which included Ty Gooden, Carl Asaba and Barry Ashby.
Andy Hessenthaler and Ade Pennock were also present with Andy Thomson, who scored the decisive goal on the day to secure promotion, travelling down from Scotland to join the team. Nyron Nosworthy, Mark Saunders, Nicky Southall, James Pinnock, Charlie Mitten and Bob Taylor also attended.
The players had a private meet and greet with the sponsors in the boardroom before being introduced to the Great Hall one at a time by our host, Rob McCaffrey.
A number of Q & A's took place on stage with Rob with video highlights from the 1999-2000 season played on the big screen. Items were sold as part of an auction before fans had the opportunity to have shirts and photographs signed.
It was a memorable occasion and we would like to thank MEMS Power Generation for being sponsors, and to all players and management for attending.