John Seager's 30 for 30: Day 9

A Cunning look back of 30 days which have changed my life over the past 30 years

Day 9:  24th July 2002: A game of footie on my birthday, wtf???

Evening all,

On my birthday in July, all i ever get is really nice weather which is really good for having family barbeques and even having a few beers as well.

Bur for this year it was the even rare occurrence that a Gillingham pre season friendly was happening on my birthday. When i found out this was happening, i was totally shocked and excited of seeing a football game on my birthday.

It was a warm Tuesday night on the 24^th July 2002, an excellent chance to have a few beers on the train to Dover and a first chance to see some new signings the Gills have made during the summer.

But initially my main concern was to make sure that a repeat of my last birthday did not happen. Basically i ended up losing at the game of drink, got kicked out of a local pub for throwing up (twice) and them mistaken a bin outside the pub for Jennifer Lopez.

So i had to make sure that i was going to survive the evening so I and a friend of mine called Adam hit the fast train to Dover where there was pleasant talk about what i got for my birthday and initial plans about the forthcoming season in the Championship.

The game at Dover Athletics’ Crabble ground was literally in the middle of nowhere and nowhere near the actual town of Dover. Basically you had to get a train to a stop before Dover and then 20 minute walk to the ground. Doing this whilst under the influence of ‘drink’ was not easy, we found a couple of decent pubs to stop and have more drinks at.

Once we got to the ground, it was a typical non league ground but at least it did have a decent clubhouse full with around 200 gills fans who have turned out for the game.

The game itself was very one sided, Dover did not put up much of a fight, and we even put out 2 different sides for each half. We also got to see the two new players who joined the club over the summer. Rod Wallace was at the time a house hold name player who used to play in the premier league week in-week out, although it was early days i thought that it was a shrewd signing for us and i was hopeful that it was going to be a good signing for the season ahead.  

By the end of the second half, Hessenthaler got in on the act of scoring and the game ended up being 10-0 to Gillingham.

It was a fun game to watch especially to see the entire goals go in as well. It was a lot of confidence as a fan going into the new season with this win under the belt.

The journey home was fun as we only made the last train home by 1 minute. Whilst under the influence of drink made it even more challenging. But it was not as challenging as getting up the next day with a massive hangover, shame on me.