In The Hot Seat: Gillingham

How long have you supported Gillingham?

I've followed the Gills for around 17 years now and have been a season ticket holder for the last decade.

What is your present squad like?

Thinner than Posh Spice, I'd say.

With everyone fit and available, our starting XI is more than capable of achieving a top-half finish, but of course things aren't that straightforward are they? In our squad I think we have possibly three, maybe four players who are capable of playing at a higher level.

We have just completed something of a coup by somehow convincing Sir Alex Ferguson to let us borrow striker Febian Brandy for three months and allow him to play in The FA Cup on Saturday, so that adds another pacy striker to our front line.

How do you think you are doing this season?

We're a real Jekyll and Hyde outfit this season, as you'll probably notice on Saturday. While we are absolutely awful away from home, at Priestfield we tend to be pretty strong.

It's a source of frustration that the same players can't reproduce their home form when they play away, but that's why they're League One players, I guess.

Favourite player in present team and why?

My favourite player won't figure on Saturday. Simon King is a top, top defender and defends every attack as if his life depends on it. The fans love him and we're a LOT weaker without him in the side. He's ruled out until 2010 and we're missing him hugely.

Which youngster has made the biggest impression in your team this season?

We've had three youngsters play for us this season.

Forward Luke Rooney looks a real talent, but needs to be eased into first team football gently after scoring a wonder goal with his first touch as a pro earlier this season.

Midfielder Jack Payne has come into the side and shown maturity way beyond his teenage years, and loanee Matt Fry, a centre half from West Ham, looks a real prospect and with the right guidance should be capable of playing his football in the top two divisions in the future.

If Fry gets clearance from West Ham, he'll start on Saturday, with Rooney and Payne likely to be on the bench.

What's your manager like and will he still be there at the end of the season?

Mark Stimson polarises opinion among Gills fans. Some like him and recognize that he's doing a good job, where as others can't stand him.

He can come across as a little bit of a cold fish - whether that's actually the case I don't know - and he seems to thrive on challenges and confrontation, which I actually quite like about him.

He's working to a virtually non-existent budget and I wouldn't be at all surprised if he moved on to pastures new in the next couple of seasons unless the club can back him more.

I can't see him being content to just survive season after season. He'll want to progress and if the club can't give him the opportunity to do that, I fully expect him to move to a club that will.

Are you happy with your chairman/backroom staff?

Am I happy with the chairman? Not really, no. He took over an ailing club, turned it around and got us back on our feet. Some shrewd managerial appointments meant we progressed from the bottom of the old fourth division to the top half of the Championship. But then he got ideas above his station, took his eye off the ball and made a catastrophic error. Spending £9m on a stand budgeted for £3.9m put a huge debt upon the club, which escalated to around the £15m mark.

Last season he sold Priestfield Stadium to himself, effectively transferring around £10m of that debt to a subsidiary company, but the Gills are still millions in the red, with little to no tangible assets to stand against it. He now lives in Dubai (supposedly in an attempt to find investment - unsurprisingly nothing has come of this) and commutes to and from the Emirate to Gills matches.

I suspect only the recession and the resulting collapse of the property/land market has prevented Paul Scally from walking away from Gillingham. Financially, I think he's stuck with a stadium he can't sell and a club with too big a debt to sell to investors, so while some fans would like him to go, I think we're stuck with him, and him us, for the foreseeable future.

Favourite ever player and why?

If we're talking about Gillingham, Andy Hessenthaler stands out as THE Gillingham player of the modern era. His never-say-die attitude, his leadership and his total commitment to the club puts him at the top of the list.

In terms of footballers in general, my favourite all-time player is the Brazilian midfield legend Zico. I've never seen a better passer of a ball in my life. He made the game look ridiculously easy and was part of my favourite team ever, the 1982 Brazil World Cup side.

Best ever Gillingham game seen?

That's a tricky one. The big games stand out, obviously.

Beating Wigan in extra time at Wembley to get into the Championship took some beating. Beating Preston 5-0 on opening day when in the Championship was a great match too. Even our 5-2 defeat at Highbury in the FA Cup a few years back was a cracker to watch.

But my favourite has to be the FA Cup win over Sheffield Wednesday back in our promotion season in 1999/2000. That goal from Nicky Southall will linger long in the memory.

Best place to have a pint before the game?

Gillingham's not exactly a five-star destination, and pub choice isn't the best. For away fans, I'd probably recommend the Livingstone Arms, which is just up the road from the away turnstiles, on a mini roundabout. There's a couple of chip shops nearby for some 'health food' too.

If you're more organised and are travelling by car or train, then I'd recommend leaving a bit earlier and stopping off in Rochester for a couple. The historic high street has loads of pubs, so you'll be able to find something there without having to elbow your way to the bar.

Which team do you want to beat the most and why?

The long-standing hate figures are Swindon Town. Check out Gills365 and search for Swindon Saga to get the full story on why Gills fans don't like Swindon.

In second place, it has to be Charlton. They are aggressively marketing themselves into Kent, and even the local media appear to be sucking up to them, too, which is disappointing as they're not a Kent club. Their argument is there are lots of Charlton fans in Kent, which doesn't really stand up when you realise there are even more Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal, Spurs and Chelsea fans down here than Charlton, but there you go.

Favourite away ground and why?

This season, none! We haven't won at one yet! If pushed I'd probably plump for Griffin Park - a proper old school stadium with a pub on each corner. It doesn't get much better than that, does it?! (No, it doesn't- Ed!)

Bar Gillingham of course, who is going to be the shock team of this year's competition?

In all honesty, I don't think there will be a "shock team" as such, but it would be nice to see the big clubs in the Premier League challenged a bit more. It would be great to see two Football League clubs make the final, but such is the financial superiority of the Premier League, I just can't see it happening.

From our division I'd expect to see decent runs from the likes of Colchester (sorry!) and Millwall, particularly if both sides get home ties in the early rounds.

Any opinions on the present financial situation at Southend and the way football is heading generally?

Southend are the ones in trouble at the moment, but I think that an awful lot more clubs are only a fraction away from being in similar strife, too. It seems a worrying amount of clubs have been living outside of their means for a while now, and the recession may be about to bring that into sharp focus as banks and creditors look to call in their debts.

Football clubs are a part of English culture, and regardless of your own club loyalties, to see one closed down would be a massive disappointment to English football fans everywhere.

The way the English game is set up, with the top of the pyramid taking almost all the money and virtually none of it trickling down to the clubs below, is potentially going to kill the lower division game in the next 10-15 years and it's a real worry.

The trouble is, if the FA put their foot down and say they're going to change the way the English game is run, the top Premier League clubs will simply break away and do their own thing outside of the FA's jurisdiction and we could have a huge rift in the game. The only way the game can be saved from eating itself is by the Premier League coming together to share more of the cash with the Football League clubs.

Sadly I just can't see that ever happening.

(Many Thanks to Simon from http://gillingham.clubfans.co.uk/)