Cans & Megabus – Your indispensable guide to Gillingham v Sunderland

Tom Walsh's tour of League One continues - with Gillingham!

There is something incredibly admirable about a professional football club selling away fans out of date beer. It feels just incredibly wholesome, like something you’d do at your local newsagents. Yeh, these beers are technically ‘out of date’ but why let them go to waste when we could sell them to you for the low, low price of £2? Honestly, where are you going to get a more competitively priced beer than that?

If that makes the journey down to Gillingham even the slightest bit more enticing, then honestly I don’t know what will. Why not we throw in a little sweetener – you get to see the enormously round Steve Evans scream obscenities for 90 minutes before lavishing praise upon your beloved Sunderland.

Still not tempted? Well, how about knowing that this could be the last you ever step foot in Priestfield because maybe, just maybe, Sunderland’s bunch of sorry losers will get promoted and we never have to see the words “Gillingham” on the fixture calendar ever again.

How Do I Get There?

If you thought Portsmouth was laughably far away, then strap in for even more time staring at the motorway heading down to wherever the hell Gillingham is. You’ll need to take the A1(M), M11 and M25 for ages until you reach Dartford then follow the A2 into the Medway. Join Pier Road following the signs for Priestfield Stadium then turn onto Ingram Road and find yourself some sweet street parking.

It’s ME7 4DD for all you sat nav losers.

If you’re on the train – which is really the only enjoyable way to make this journey – you’ll be going from either London Victoria, St Pancras, Charing Cross or Stratford International. All of them take around half an hour to get to Gillingham and the ground is a ten-minute walk from there.

What’s the Ground Like?

In a word – hilarious. Gillingham have been steadfast in their absolute refusal to replace the “temporary” away stand for ages and you have to respect that. What makes it even more fun is that a section of this open air Ryder Cup stand is currently unusable which is both incredible and pathetic. The lucky ones among may even be in the Gordon Road Stand which has the luxury of a roof.

Yer thirsty?

While Cans & Megabus has been reliably informed by many of its Gillingham sources that the town is pretty much awful for pubs, we shall persist regardless. For instance, the Fleur De Lis on Gillingham Road looks fine, as does The Will Adams on Saxton Street but, let’s be honest, if you have anything about you, you’ll do your supping in foggy London Town.