Book reviews

Gillingham have enjoyed a huge transformation since 1992. But getting out of the Football League is almost certainly beyond the limit of their resources, says Haydn Parry

If you had told me a decade ago that Gillingham would finish the 2000-01 season in a comfortable mid-table berth in the First Division, I wouldn’t have be­lieved you – or I would have thought you meant the first division of the Kent League. The past decade has been a golden age for the Gills. After a century of scraping about in the lower divisions (and worse), we’ve pack-ed most of the remarkable moments in the club’s his- tory into ten years. Yet we’re not so intoxicated by our own success that we fail to recognise what is now prob­ably an unbreachable financial gap to the Prem­iership.

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In an extract from the new WSC book, Always Next Year 3, Nick House revisits Torquay's last-day ordeal at Barnet and rediscovers some home truths

On the Northern Line we reflect, yet again, on what’s gone wrong this time. Brian recalls the mood coming back from Kidderminster on day one. You, Brian, Phil, Brian’s mate Tony from Tokyo and, we assume, 700 others had travelled with optimism. We couldn’t quite explain, but we thought it was going to be our season. Best squad for years; good mixture of youth and experience; plenty of flair and enterprise. We’re on our way.

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Brentford have been having difficulties finding a location for their proposed new stadium, with the club at loggerheads with the local council. Chris Clapham looks at the poosible solutions

Griffin Park has been Brentford’s home since 1904, but with gates falling and the local council refusing to allow redevelopment, most supporters had long accepted that the club needed a new purpose-built stadium How­ever, the recently agreed deal that would take Brentford to groundshare at Woking’s King­field Stadium from the start of the 2002-03 season has caused uproar among Bees fans.

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Gary Panton reports on  two St Johnstone players alleged to have taken  cocaine as they and the club head to court over unpaid wages

It’s fair to say neither George O’Boyle nor Kevin Thomas can claim to fit into the “model sportsmen” bracket. The two ex-St Johnstone strikers, sacked by the Perth club at the turn of the year after being caught with a line of white powder in the toilet cubicle of a trendy local bar, recently attempted to swing public sympathy in their favour by telling a Sunday tabloid that the whole sorry incident had been a result of “drunken curiosity”.

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Jonathan Baker explains why he is turning his back on the Premiership in general and Newcastle in particular

Now, I’m something of a Newcastle United fan. In fact, I’m one of the club’s top, ooh, 50,000 or so supporters. A bold claim? Well, not really. You see, for the past season or three, I’ve been one of the elite. One of the lucky few with a share in a season ticket for St James’ Park – an item so sought-after that a Hollywood film (the mysteriously entitled Purely Belter) has been made based on the epic quest to obtain one by a pair of loveable scallies from deepest Gateshead.

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