Chris Whelpdale may yet to have convinced everyone since moving back to the Gills on a permanent deal but is it any coincidence his return to the side has coincided with the recent revival?

He may well admit himself that in the early stages of the season he failed to live up to the billing after becoming one of the more high-profile signings that boss Andy Hessenthaler made.

His whirlwind loan stint in the previous campaign saw him net three goals in four games before injury cut short his stay. Try as they might, the Gills were unable to bring him back until agreeing a fee with Peterborough in the summer.

Those blistering performances were in short supply at the start of the season but are we now starting to see the real Whelpdale?

A lot has been made of the influence that the youngsters have made to the Gills and that has been fully justified. Whelpdale himself may feel he should still be classed as a youngster. He has only just turned 25 which means he should still have his best years ahead of him.

In recent weeks he has been deployed in an advanced attacking position and he seems to be thriving on the chance to get involved at the top end. He has scored four goals in his last eight games, the kind of form that is better than leading scorer Danny Kedwell.

Whelpdale was dropped to the bench for the match against Wimbledon in January. The Gills lost 4-3. He failed to make the team for the game at Accrington, where the Gills again suffered a 4-3 defeat, and again missed out when the Gills suffered a third straight loss. This time going down 2-1 to Southend.

Hessenthaler recalled him for the trip to Port Vale, where the Gills boss also brought in youngsters Connor Essam and Jack Evans. Whelpdale was on target in what ended in another defeat but at least the performance was far better than in previous weeks.

Since then the Gills and Whelpdale haven’t looked back.

The former Posh man has started every game and is beginning to look like the player which led the Gills to digging deep and shelling out cash to bring him in from Peterborough. If Crawley boss Steve Evans' programme notes were to be believed, he was one of several players who turned him down for a more favourable deal with the Gills.

Gillingham need their best players performing at this stage of the season and Whelpdale appears to have answered Hessenthaler’s plea. At a time when the Gills couldn’t buy a win the Gills boss needed some of those summer signings to give him a bit of pay back. Whelpdale has certainly started to do that.

He is looking like a vital cog for the Gills and the last goal at Cheltenham showed what a class act he is. A neat interchange of passes with Jo Kuffour and Kedwell opened up their defence in the latter stages.

Up next are Crawley and Whelpdale will certainly be hoping for a better end to his last meeting against Evans’ side. He left the pitch with a nasty testical injury – one which gained worldwide exposure (thanks to Danny Spiller's twitter account) – following a challenge from David Hunt.

He will be looking to avenge that painful setback and in the form he is showing he could end up hurting Crawley where it really hurts.

BY this time next week we could well have a much clearer picture of which way Gillingham’s season is going to pan out.
With two games scheduled in three days it could well be a defining period.
First up is a trip to a Burton side who have wobbled of late but are having a surprisingly good season.
The toughness of that trip could rest on how well some of the Burton players are recovering from injuries, with strikers Billy Kee and Justin Richards on the treatment table recently.
The Gills follow up Saturday’s trip to Burton with a home game, live on Sky, against second placed Southend.
These aren’t the kind of games you need after conceding eight goals in your last two games.
For Andy Hessenthaler’s men they should be looking at four points minimum. Any less and those play-off places might start looking like a distant dream.
Hopes of automatic promotion should now be forgotten and only the most optimistic of fans can hope the Gills can gatecrash that party. It would need an incredible run of results now, indeed the Gills will need to double their current points tally to stand any hope, with just 19 games left.
The Gills are already nine points off sixth placed Torquay and with Accrington (8th) and Oxford (7th) - who hold the final play-off position at the moment - meeting this weekend, the gap between Hess’s men and the play-offs would definitely grow, if they don’t get a win at Burton.
At the start of the season the Gills set themselves a rough target of two points a game, on average, to achieve promotion.
That was assuming they would need 80 points plus to get into the automatic places.
Their current points to games ratio is just over 1.5.
If they keep going at this rate then they’ll finish the season with 68 points, which would be the same as they finished last season.
Fans won’t be happy to see the team not only miss the play-offs again but also make no progress.
Last season that points total just enabled Torquay to scrape into the final play-off spot, having had a point deducted for fielding an ineligible player. They finished above the Gills on goal difference.
What is for certain is that Gillingham need to improve or the season will be another one to forget.
Only once in the last decade has a points tally lower than 68 bagged a club a play-off spot, when Lincoln got on board with just 66 points after becoming the draw specialists. They did, however, only lose 10 games. That’s how many the Gills have already achieved.
Points tallies aside, the Gills now have two massive games to focus on.
Two defeats and the play-offs will be a struggle, a draw and a win and there is hope, two wins and it’s game on again.
Let’s hope it’s the latter.

After conceding six goals in two games Andy Hessenthaler snapped on Saturday with a verbal volley at his defenders.

Four avoidable goals against Wimbledon at the weekend led to him threatening to bring in the youngsters.

But now after making that threat will he go through with it?

The danger is that Hessenthaler could make a bad situation worse by bringing in untried youngsters and we’ve already seen it before.

Following the disaster that was the Dover FA Cup game last season, Hess hauled in Callum Davies to play against Crewe, in the following league match.

Just 28 minutes into his debut Davies saw red after Crewe’s Clayton Donaldson was tugged back by the young defender. Gills went onto lose 3-1.

Hessenthaler, who made his players watch the DVD of the Wimbledon game on Sunday morning, is now talking up the return from loan of Connor Essam to inject some youth into his back-line.

Essam has been playing for Dartford during the last month or so and will make his final appearance for the Blue Square Bet South side tonight (Tuesday) at Staines. He could now find himself in the starting line-up to face Accrington on Saturday instead of facing Thurrock for Tony Burman’s play-off hopefuls.

Connor has been with the Gills for some time and is now a second year pro. But in his 18 months of being among the first team he has not even made a substitute appearance.

Is it wise to bring him into an already nervy team at a place as unforgiving as Accrington?

But then when is a good time? He is clearly talented, hence the second year contract he was handed in the summer, and if he isn’t going to be given a chance then what’s the point?

He could be joined in the back four by Simon King, who before injury looked destined for bigger and better things than Gillingham, but has barely been seen in the last two years. Fitness could be a problem, but again, it could be a case of now or never for King.

No doubt young Davies will also be knocking on the manager’s door this week but if none of those players get a shout they may as well start looking elsewhere for football.

Hessenthaler is in a no-win situation now. If he drops Lawrence, Garry Richards or Joe Martin he may lose their respect. After all, until recently the defence were performing well. But if he ignores the others in his squad then they will be asking what more they need to do.

It’s going to be a pivotal moment of the season this weekend.

The automatic promotion places are already looking like a long shot and unless Hessenthaler can quickly establish a solid system at the back even the play-offs could slip from their grasp.

The Gills haven’t lost three league games in a row this season and the last place Hessenthaler will be wanting to go is Accrington, where 18 months ago his team conceded seven.

Hess said this week he was in the market for an "athletic" defender in the ilk of Nyron Nosworthy. But looking for a player and signing one are two completely different things.

Changes are inevitable at the weekend but it will be a brave move for Hess to tinker too much.

He is under pressure to get results, he knows the score, but he’ll need to show the fans and perhaps more importantly the chairman that he is taking assertive action to put things right.

The braver move for Hess, and arguably the sensible move, could be to stick with the same defence and give them a chance to prove the doubters wrong. Saturday’s team-sheet will certainly make interesting reading this weekend, whoever he chooses.

Picture: Barry Goodwin

LUKE ROONEY is all set for a move to Swindon Town but who is the winner here?

For the Gills they look set to get an unexpected January cash windfall while Town get a young player with undoubted talent.

It is likely that talks and a medical will be concluded one way or another on Tuesday.

The problem for Swindon boss Paolo Di Canio will be how he gets the best out of Rooney.

Only fleetingly have Gills fans seen him at his electric best. When he is good, he is a pleasure to watch, but all-too-often we have seen him let frustration get the better of him.

Rooney, who turned down an offer of a new deal with the Gills, has the problem that afflicts all players at this level, a lack of consistency.

On Saturday, and the week before against Stoke, he showed exactly what he is all about at the moment. He came on to do what he does best, as an impact sub. He doesn’t like the tag but since he progressed into Gills’ first team his most dangerous displays have been when coming on against a tiring defence.

Against Stoke he nearly scored a blistering goal, after side-stepping two markers, only to be denied by a good save. He did the same against Shrewsbury on Saturday as he produced a shot at goal - something the rest of the team had failed to do in the first 70 minutes.

He has the ability to get people off their seats and excite but he is a luxury player at present.

Neither team are likely to reveal the full details of the agreement made, but I’m sure if the Gills got £150-200k then they would be happy. I doubt they would get so much in the summer when he would leave for a fee set by an FA tribunal.

But if fans are expecting an injection of cash into Andy Hessenthaler’s transfer pot then think again.

The budget was already maxed out before Jo Kuffour agreed a contract until the end of the season and Gavin Tomlin checked in on a half-season loan.

If anything the money will be used to level out the deficit and off-set a few debts.

Hessenthaler, if he is lucky, may be afforded the luxury of just one more player.

We await to see if Di Canio can turn Rooney into a genuine star player and how well a hot-tempered player (on the pitch) and the equally hot-tempered manager can hit it off. That, of course, is on the assumption that Rooney and his dad can broker a deal.

They clearly felt the Gills were under-valuing him. But Rooney is still someway off making even 100 appearances at first team football (61 at present) and the 21-year-old is nowhere near the finished product. Only time will tell who is the winner on this one, but at present I think the Gills will be feeling pretty comfortable about the situation.

Whatever the thoughts are about Rooney’s decision, however, nobody should question his desire to help Gills succeed out on the pitch when he played. He is a real winner and a nice lad as well.

Players come and go in football and all he is doing is looking after number one now, as we all do. Let’s hope it’s the right decision and I personally wish him luck.

Luke Rooney had dominated the headlines this week for all the wrong reasons in a saga that would usually be reserved for the circus that is the Premier League.

Judging by comments on the situation from Gillingham fans there seems to be large-scale support for the club’s stance but how much damage could the episode do to the club or the player.

After Gills’ first half performance on Saturday no doubt many will say he wasn’t missed but when Chris Whelpdale started limping late on at Aldershot the list of possible replacements looked slim.

Gillingham came into the season with limited resources out on the flanks and Rooney’s omission will leave them short of numbers further still.

Could Gillingham’s hard-line approach to the situation hinder the team or is Rooney more of a luxury player that won’t be missed?

Rooney, who is out of contract in the summer, has only just started to earn a right to call himself a regular first team player but if the contract talks remain stalled then he could well find himself sidelined for the next six months and joining the hundreds of players looking for a new club in the summer.

Because of his age Gillingham would still be entitled to compensation if he joins another club so they seem to be the ones with the least to lose.

Rooney is a likeable lad and always very approachable and nobody should doubt his appetite for the game and determination on the field. But he seems to have made a grave mistake this time around by listening to his representatives or perhaps his own ego.

As we don’t know what he has been offered it would be wrong to label him a "money grabber" as some have done. For all we know the offer may be derisory and he is well within his rights to say, thanks, but no thanks.

But with Jack Payne agreeing to a deal last week it seems that the Gills were prepared to entice both young players with reasonable deals to stay. Had both declined than perhaps there would have been questions over just what was offered.

Rooney’s last contract extension was protracted after the Gills offered him three years and he eventually accepted two after a long delay.

It appears that the Gills aren’t willing to be as patient this time around.

Rooney really needs to sign the deal and get back to concentrating on improving his game. He has looked a more rounded player this season but six months on the sidelines will do nothing for his career. He could be in danger of going backwards.

If he signs and then does well the big boys will soon start calling and he can then start to make demands but right now, with his career in its infancy, he should take what he can get and then prove that he can harness his undoubted skill and make it big.

Gillingham are League 2 and Rooney is currently a League 2 player who has yet to claim a "key man" status so it’s still too early for him to be calling the shots.

Let’s hope he, his representatives and the club can come to agreement quickly, because Rooney is a quality player and Gillingham will benefit from that. Sitting in the stands will be a shocking waste of talent that the Gills have worked so hard to nurture.

Of course, he could already know, via his representatives, that another club are willing to pay him what he wants…

GILLINGHAM fans face a 460-mile round trip in the pursuit of happiness this weekend.

It takes a serious amount of dedication to spend nine hours on the road to do anything - let alone watch 90 minutes of League 2 football.

I’m told Torquay’s Plainmoor ground is also under development so what awaits us when we arrive is anyone’s guess. They have already ruled out seating for visiting fans.

Not that many people will be complaining having spent the best part of the day staring at either the backside of another car or the headrest on a train/coach.

The press facilities last time out were minimal, to put it mildly, so don’t be surprised to see a few journalists wrestling with a laptop in the terraces.

But if Gillingham fans thought they were dedicated spare a thought for the Italian Gianfranco Giordano he regular travels 1,100 miles from his home in Italy to watch Ebbsfleet United.

Now I know the standard of football in Italy has taken a plunge since the heady days of Channel 4’s Football Italia but surely it can’t have got that bad.

The 50-year-old from Turin was once a season ticket holder at AC Milan but couldn’t resists the tempation of Ebbsfleet and the prospect of parting with a few Euros to take a share in the club, through their MyFootballClub ownership.

“My wife thinks I’m crazy” he said. She’s not the only one.

He’ll make the trek 18 times in a season to make sure he gets full value from his £300 season ticket.

Apparently he’s a policeman and they must pay well for him to afford a £200 the fortnightly air-fare.

It’s the kind of jet-set lifestyle that only Gillingham’s very own chairman Paul Scally would be able to compete with.

I have in the past laughed at the sight of a miserly bunch of away fans spread out in the top of the Brian Moore stand in recent seasons, but I should be a little more kind. Perhaps the lack of away fans at Priestfield shows how many sane people are around these days. You certainly have to worry aboue the 50-odd Barnet fans who made the trip for a first round JPT game.

I made the same mistake myself some years back, for an Auto Windscreens Trophy tie between Wigan and Lincoln. This was when Wigan were rubbish and played at a rubbish ground infront of a handful of people. We missed the first half (bad traffic) and wished we had missed the second.

At least nowadays I am doing those ridiculous journeys for work-purposes rather than ‘pleasure’.

Let’s hope the Gills fans get rewarded for their efforts this weekend with another Hereford-style goal blitz and Mr Giordano gets a bit more joy for his Euros. He’s only seen one win so far this season.

EYEBROWS were raised on Saturday as "little" AFC Wimbledon battered the Gills into submission.

Under-estimating clubs coming up into the Football League is an easy mistake to make and just ask fans at Grimsby, Lincoln and Darlington if they think the Conference is a walk in the park.

Teams dropping out of the Football League have struggled in recent years while those coming up have had little problems in adapting to life outside of non-league circles.

There is an abundance of quality in the Conference Premier and AFC Wimbledon proved on Saturday that they may not be a recognisable force but they are worthy to be competing at League 2 level, and possibly above.

Clubs facing relegation from League 2 can be easily swallowed up after falling out of the trap door and that indicates how strong teams like AFC Wimbledon have to be to claw their way out of non-league.

Last season’s relegated teams Stockport and Lincoln have won just five games between them this season from 26 after struggling to adapt to life outside of League 2.

Since the two-team relegation from the bottom end of the Football League was introduced there is an abundance of clubs struggling to reignite former glories.

Grimsby were once regulars in football's second tier and often caused cup shocks, while ex-top flight side Luton, Stockport, Cambridge United, Mansfield and Wrexham are all facing tough competition to regain their Football League status. Scarborough and Chester City ended up going bust.

Next season we may well be seeing Fleetwood Town, Braintree or Gateshead and although not recognised names to the general football public they will no doubt come into League 2 aiming at the top end rather than the bottom.

Between the 2000/2001 and 2005/2006 season of the 10 teams relegated, six regained their league status, with Carlisle and Exeter now playing in League 1.

In recent years, however, the non-league scene has been transformed with full-time players, with only a handful of teams in the Conference Premier now operating on a part-time basis. It has narrowed the gap between the top of non-league and League 2 massively.

In the last five seasons Lincoln, Stockport, Grimsby, Darlington, Chester, Luton, Mansfield, Wrexham and Boston have all been relegated with only Torquay regaining their status. Life outside League 2 is tough and some argue the standards at the top of the Conference are superior to much of what is served at the bottom of League 2.

Gills boss Andy Hessenthaler rightly described his team’s defending as like a "circus" on Saturday but he was also quick to praise Wimbledon and their boss Terry Brown.

After managing Dover for several seasons he knows that quality doesn’t stop at the 92 league clubs. The Dons may have come from non-league but they are no mugs and anyone who underestimates those from below are going to be continually shocked.

Gillingham were beaten by a better team on Saturday and with plenty more talented sides waiting for their chance those at the wrong end of League 2, like fallen giants such as Bradford, won’t want to be the next to fall into the abyss never to be seen again but that is something which could easily happen.

GILLINGHAM have made it clear they will be keeping a close eye on local talent after missing out on some high profile players in recent years.

Boss Andy Hessenthaler will be hoping another Chris Smalling doesn’t slip through the net and at present they don’t have to go far from home to see some quality talent just waiting for a chance to impress.

The Gills recently plumped for West Ham’s Frank Nouble to give their attacking options an immediate boost but the club will no doubt also have noticed some familiar figures doing the business upfront in the lower leagues.

Raw talent needs nurturing, so it was no surprise Hessenthaler went for someone of Nouble’s stature for a quick fix, but in the long run he could be turning to some of Kent’s top non-league sides as he did when he went back to Dover to land Adam Birchall.

As Danny Kedwell is proving, since getting his dream move to the Gills, it can be a long route into the professional game but there are so many players out there just waiting to show what they can do.

At Ebbsfleet they have an attacking threat in Michael West who would no doubt do the business at a higher level. He came through Fleet’s youth set-up and has grown into a key player for Liam Daish’s side.

He’s a skilful player, hampered by injury this season, who loves to run at defenders. Although not a striker, he knows where the net is. His goals in last season’s successful Blue Square South play-off campaign were crucial.

It wasn’t long ago that Charlie MacDonald was banging in the goals for the Fleet. He was linked to the Gills but ended up at Southend and then Brentford. He reportedly cost MK Dons £1m this summer and has hit three goals in eight games so far.

Andy Pugh, meanwhile, who was released by the Gills in 2007 has become a big hit at Welling since taking a step backwards. The 22-year-old top scored for the Wings with 17 last season and has 10 in 10 so far this season. He is quick and skillful and will surely be back in the league some day.

Another former Gillingham youngster, Frannie Collin, has netted double figures for Tonbridge Angels and will be just as determined to prove that he has developed and is ready for another shot at the big time.

Charlie Sheringham meanwhile has the name, thanks to his father Teddy, and is fast developing a good reputation at Dartford. He has 11 goals to his name already and after spending his younger days with Tottenham he has been brought up to play decent football.

Dartford have certainly produced some talent in recent years. Cody McDonald wasn’t there very long but they cashed in when he went to Norwich City just a few years after wing-wizard Dave Martin moved to Crystal Palace.

Kent may not be awash with top teams but is developing some good footballers and the Gills need to remain alert so it’s them that benefit and not others.

Chris Smalling went from Maidstone United to Manchester United and the Champions League in the space of a whirlwind three years, which included a £10m move from Fulham to Old Trafford. Despite going to Chatham Grammar he bypassed his local club completely.

Young defender Jack Baldwin moved from Faversham to Hartlepool in the summer, despite brief interest from the Gills. Will he prove to be another that got away?

Clearly the Gills can’t sign every half-decent player in Kent but the good thing is that Hessenthaler has made a point of keeping in with the locals, by spending the summer playing numerous pre-season friendlies and loaning a number of players to local clubs. It is unlikely local talent will by-pass Priestfield so easily in the future and the next big star could be turning out in blue and not elsewhere. Just who can make it remains to be seen.

HISTORY was made on Saturday and I wasn’t even there to see it!

Quite ironically I was due at Gillingham FC’s board room at 7pm, for a non-football related party, so I left the match in the capable hands of Matthew Panting.

Needless to say I was a little miffed, after watching some pretty crass football of late, to hear that the Gills were turning it on at Hereford.

I had seen the second half capitulation at Rotherham, the late goal at Barnet, the woeful display against Accrington and the failure to finish Southend off.

What a shock to hear that the same players were in the throws of a record breaking outing.

Stefan Payne’s goal made it six and that for the Gills made it their best ever Football League away result - beating the 5-0 win at Burnley achieved in February 1999 with all the goals scored by Bob Taylor.

It had the statos busily checking the history books and my own collection got an airing.

Most useful was Tony Brown’s complete record that informed me that, as New Brompton Football Club in 1894, their first league game ended with a 6-0 win at Sheppey.

That was in the Southern League so that doesn’t count. If we are talking best ever away wins EVER then the Southern League era certainly threw up some big scores, including 7-2 at Chesham and 6-0 at Old St Stephens.

In 1923 the club recorded a 6-0 win at Nunhead in the FA Cup and during the Second World War the Gills beat Maidstone 7-0 in the Kent Regional League (Eastern Group). Football that season was abandoned shortly after a 6-1 win at Dover in the Kent Senior Shield.

Gillingham saved their best away performances for the 1945/46 Kent League season when they recorded an 8-1 win at Folkestone and a 9-2 victory over Canterbury-based army side 12th ITC (just a couple of weeks before beating them 10-1 at home). That remains their biggest ever away success.

The goals have sadly dried up in the last 60 odd years so congratulations to the 255 travelling fans that can say they were there and the one KM reporter in the press box who probably goes away wondering what on earth the pre-match doom and gloom was all about!