The 'Kent Derby'?

I'm sorry?

This is no kind of 'derby' for me.
I live within a very easy walk of The Valley and I don't live in Kent.

I concede a large proportion of our support do live in Kent but I'd guess that many of them live within those parts that come under the Greater London areas of Bexley or Bromley, or the slightly further out areas around Dartford.

Our games this season against Leyton Orient or Brentford hold more 'local' interest for me.

All this is meaningless anyway.
Even if 100% of our support came from the Medway towns, the club is still based in Greenwich.
 If the locality of supporters is the criteria we work on, when Manchester United played at Selhurst Park it should have been classified a 'derby' due to the massive amount of United supporters who hail from the Guildford to Leatherhead areas.

Paul Scally,(above), has tried his hardest to whip up some anti Charlton feelings among the Gillingham support but to their credit, it would appear that many Gills have labels for him, all meaning the same as 'knob'.

Other Gills have chosen to disregard the generosity of Charlton supporters when raising money for Gillingham F.C.
 They have got their knickers in a twist over some leaflets handed out, (outside the Priestfield), when Charlton were playing there. The leaflets were informing Charlton supporters from the area how easy it was to get to the Valley on the Valley Express.
Apparently, this was "stealing fans".

How you go about stealing fans I've no idea.
 I already know I can get to The Emirates stadium for just a few pounds but I'm not going to suddenly rock up there rather than The Valley. I really can't imagine there was even one die hard Gills fan who decided to come to the Valley for their football fix on the strength of a cheap bus.

It might not be a 'derby' for me but I realise we are going to get a pretty frosty reception down in Kent. As Gillingham's nearest 'big' club, (until recently), they would absolutely love the chance to turn us over.

Our support will possibly water down any potential 'cauldron'.
 The Charlton allocation sold out before the tickets reached 'General Sale' two weeks ago. Many unlucky fans have chosen to buy tickets in home sections so there will be pockets of Addicks all over the ground.

I hope that Parky doesn't get caught up in any 'derby' nonsense and just takes the team down the A2 to do a professional job.
We have the players to outplay two thirds of this division, which by my reckoning would include a team such as Gillingham.
I shall be there on Saturday, cheering on the reds and getting drenched according to the BBC website.

Five years ago, The Observer ran a poll to discover the 'Crappiest Ground' in English football.
........Gillingham's home 'won'.

I reproduce an email from an unhappy Gills fan for your amusement, along with the comment from an Observer Sport columnist.
Enjoy.
..........................................................................................................
As a Gillingham fan I found your report offensive and insulting. If you are reporting on the ground, report on the ground, not the local area. We have a decent stadium that doesn't have a bad view in the house. OK, it is overpriced but that's just because of media scumbags like you trying to get involved in football and messing it all up.

I would like to know who the 'football club spokesman' was that described the town as a dump. Agreed, Gillingham isn't the most welcoming of places to stuck-up snobs like you. Go to Deptford and write about Millwall - or do you not want to bad-mouth our capital city and reveal certain parts of it to be the scummy, dingy, places that they are? (Fair enough, you slated Selhurst Park for being a dump.)

Priestfield is undergoing a multimillion-pound redevelopment from the 'nothing more than a couple of cowsheds knocked together'. You have made our football club the worst place to visit in the country and you wonder why people hate the press. We can't all be posh London snobs, can we?

I was thinking about being a journalist when I left school, but all the rubbish articles changed my mind.
Dean Baxter
via email

Scumbag Snob Editor replies (from Mayfair penthouse): As stated in last week's preamble 'the journey to the game and the crapness of the surrounding area' were important considerations. We can't change the rules now. And the poll wasn't exclusive to journalists: the main contributors (as listed) were fans.