List of Gillingham F.C. managers

This is a list of Gillingham F.C. managers since the club appointed its first full-time manager in 1896, along with the number of competitive games managed, winning percentage and honours won.

Although Gillingham F.C. was founded in 1893, a full-time manager was not appointed until 1896, when William Ironside Groombridge, who had previously served as the club's financial secretary, took charge of team affairs. Apart from a two-year spell between 1906 and 1908, when former England international Stephen Smith took over, Groombridge held the post until after the First World War. Upon being admitted to the Football League in May 1920, the club appointed Robert Brown to the post, but he resigned without ever taking charge of a match. He was replaced by Scotsman John McMillan, the club's first non-English manager.

The next significant manager of Gillingham was Archie Clark, under whose management the club returned to the Football League in 1950, having been voted out in 1938. Clark managed Gillingham from 1939 until 1958, making him the club's longest-serving manager of the professional era, albeit with his stint interrupted by the Second World War.

Freddie Cox was the first and, to date, only manager to win a major trophy with Gillingham, taking the Football League Fourth Division championship in the 1963–64 season. Under his successor, Basil Hayward, the club was relegated back to the Fourth Division in the 1970–71 season, but Andy Nelson led the club to promotion back to Division Three three years later. After the Gills were relegated once again in the 1988–89 season, Tony Pulis managed the club to promotion seven years later. Pulis also took the team to the final of the play-offs for promotion to the second tier of English football in the 1998–99 season. Pulis was sacked immediately after this for gross misconduct,cite web|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20010427/ai_n14388172|title=Football: Pulis denies engineering Gills sacking|publisher=The Independent|author=Mike Taylor|date=2001-04-27|accessdate=2008-01-07] but his successor, Peter Taylor, took the club back to the play-off final the following season, where victory over Wigan Athletic saw the club promoted to Division One for the first time in its history.

Managers

*All statistics are from "The Definitive Gillingham F.C.: A Complete Record" unless otherwise stated.
*All senior competitive first-team matches are included. Exact months of appointment for many managers appointed during the summer break between seasons are not known.

"Statistics for current manager correct to 2008-05-03"

Notes

References

*cite web|url=http://www.allfootballers.com/managers.php|title=Manager Search (Back to 1888!)|accessdate=2007-12-20|publisher=Since1888.co.uk (paid subscription required)
*cite web|url=http://www.soccerbase.com/manager_history.sd?teamid=1098|title=Manager History for Gillingham|accessdate=2007-12-20|publisher=Soccerbase
*cite book
last = Bateson
first = Bill
coauthors = Albert Sewell
title = News of the World Football Annual 1989/1990
publisher = Invincible Press
year = 1989
isbn = 0-8554-3172-5
pages =
*cite book
last = Bateson
first = Bill
coauthors = Albert Sewell
title = News of the World Football Annual 1993/1994
publisher = Invincible Press
year = 1993
isbn = 0-8554-3208-X
pages =
*cite book
last = Bradley
first = Andy
coauthors = Roger Triggs
title = Home of the Shouting Men: Complete History of Gillingham Football Club 1893–1993
publisher = Gillingham F.C.
year = 1994
isbn = 0-9523-3610-3
pages =
*cite book
last = Brown
first = Tony
coauthors =
title = The Definitive Gillingham F.C.: A Complete Record
publisher = Soccerdata
year = 2003
isbn = 1-8994-6820-X
pages =
*cite book
last = Rollin
first = Jack
coauthors =
title = Sky Sports Football Yearbook 2007–2008
publisher = Headline Book Publishing
year = 2007
isbn = 0-7553-1664-9
pages =
*cite book
last = Triggs
first = Roger
coauthors =
title = Gillingham Football Club: A Chronology 1893–1984
publisher = Kent County Libraries
year = 1984
isbn =
pages =
*cite book | | last = Triggs
first = Roger | title=The Men Who Made Gillingham Football Club| publisher=Tempus Publishing Ltd | year=2001| id=ISBN 0-7524-2243-X