Gillingham in 2025/26: The story so far

Gills365 gets back underway at the start of 2026 with Gillingham's fortunes looking eerily familiar with seasons past.

It’s been a familiar tale at Priestfield this season.

The team got off to an absolute flyer of a start, and extended their undefeated record past a club record 20 games before eventually losing out to Harrogate Town on September 27.

That unexpected defeat, at home, against a struggling side, proved to be the pin that popped the Gills’ early-season bubble. Almost overnight the team went from a strong, confident, unbeatable side to a team that simply could not buy a win. Four league games in October yielded a solitary point. The run coincided with boss Gareth Ainsworth’s enforced absence as he underwent heart surgery.

By mid-November, he was back in the dugout as the Gills stopped the rot to some extent. A win at Bristol Rovers, with Ainsworth in the stands, halted the Gills’ slide, and a hat-trick of successive draws started off what fans hoped would be another long unbeaten run.

However, December saw the Gills’ form stagnate. Four draws and one defeat highlighted the problem the club has been suffering from for several seasons – a lack of a legitimate goal threat in attack.

Now, as we head into the new year in 16th place, seven points off the playoff places, and 15 points clear of the drop zone, the time has come to see just what Ainsworth and his assistant Richard Dobson can do with this group of players. It will also be an interesting test of the club’s recruitment strategy. The club’s overall recruitment in the Galinson era has been poor, and the club still hasn’t addressed the need for a proven goalscorer to lead the line.

Can Ainsworth get a tune out of these players, or will the this squad end up bundled in with the other Gills squads of recent seasons, who looked like a million bucks at the start of the campaign, only to look like flat-track bullies who couldn’t handle it when the going got tough in the winter months? And will the club be bold and finally get a proven finisher through the door to give Ainsworth the focal point his attack so desperately needs?

January will hopefully give us those answers, and hopefully they’re positive ones. Each season has started with such optimism, but year after year, they’ve proved to be false dawns. The owners’ commitment to the cause deserves better, as does the fanbase, who have willingly bought into the club and its mooted two-year plan under Ainsworth.

With a quarter of that plan in the books, the jury is well and truly out. Much still needs to be done, and the fans remain hopeful that Ainsworth is the right man to do it. But if the form doesn’t pick up after the transfer window closes, more questions are likely to be asked.

It all means we head into 2026 with guarded optimism that things can and will improve. But we also have to put a lot of faith in that improvement happening, because as things stand, we aren’t seeing much evidence of it on the pitch.

It’s going to be a bumpy ride – it always is with Gillingham – but hopefully that two-year plan gets us to where we want to be.