Gillingham and Fulham played out a goalless draw as the Gills secured promotion from the Third Division due to events elsewhere on an emotional afternoon at Craven Cottage.
The visitors began the game on the front foot and spurned good chances to take the lead. John Gayle went close twice in quick succession, drilling an effort into the legs of Mark Blake before his tame follow-up was easily held by Tony Lange in the Fulham goal. The raucous travelling fans, rumoured to be around 6,000, celebrated what they thought was the opening goal five minutes later when Gayle thumped home from close range but their joy was shortlived as referee Rodger Gifford had already blow to penalise Leo Fortune-West for pushing.
Fortune-West was an absolute live wire on the right side of Gillingham’s front three and might have scored on the half hour mark after leaving Robbie Herrera for dead but Lange bailed his left back out with a superb save at full stretch. Fulham had the better of the early part of the second half but struggled to extend their former goalkeeper Jim Stannard on his first return to Craven Cottage. Stannard’s former Fulham team-mate Glen Thomas helped shackle Mike Conroy and Rory Hamill, who were both replaced before the end, as he registered a remarkable 28th league clean sheet of the season.
It was Thomas who came closest to scoring on an afternoon that was short on quality in the final third. He lashed a 25-yard drive fractionally over Tony Lange’s crossbar after a well-worked move from a short free-kick caught Fulham by surprise. Gillingham might have missed out on the title, but the roar that greeted confirmation of the Kent club’s promotion out of English football’s bottom tier suggested their supporters were far from despondent about it.
FULHAM: Lange, Marshall, Herrera, Morgan, Moore, Blake, McAree (Brooker 45), Cusack, Conroy (Williams 84), Hamill (Mison 84), Simpson.
GILLINGHAM: Stannard; Thomas, Micklewhite, Smith, Harris, Rattray, Martin, Ratcliffe, Gayle, Fortune-West (S. Butler 81), Bailey (Puttnam 87). Sub (not used): Watson.
REFEREE: Rodger Gifford (Glamorgan)
ATTENDANCE: 10,320.
