Gillingham may have lost 5-0 to Chelsea in the FA Cup quarter finals, but the Gills’ historic match meant a great victory for another local team.

Editorial staff at Medway Today produced a 16-page FA Cup special to wrap-round Monday’s paper – the day after the match at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge ground.

With 12 pages of full colour, the souvenir special was a tribute to the most historic day in Gillingham’s 107-year history.

Proud editor Ron Green said: “It was a superb team effort. Staff were working until about 1am on Monday morning on the FA Cup special, then they were back in again at 5am to finish the rest of the paper. I was very proud of them all.”

The supplement included almost 30 action shots from the match, plus more than 20 shots of fans before and during the game – all taken by staff photographers.

Medway Today’s team at Stamford Bridge was made up of reporters Tony Hudd, Steve Butt and Scott Coomber with photographers Matthew Walker, Grant Falvey and Paul Dennis.

Efforts were made to cover every angle of the most historic day in Gillingham’s 107-year history. Back in Gillingham, reporter Sirkka Huish, was at the fans’ favourite pub, The Cricketers, to talk to the supporters who couldn’t get tickets but were listening to the radio commentary over a pint.

Back at the Chatham head office, sub-editors worked hard on the page designs as the copy was filed and pictures biked back from the match.

The comprehensive coverage of the souvenir special also included reports on: a local DJ who threw a pre-match fancy dress party on Saturday night; post-match reaction from Gillingham boss Peter Taylor, player coach Andy Hessenthaler, Gills Chairman Paul Scally, Chelsea manager Gianluca Vialli and players and fans.

Tony Hudd provided a detailed match report, full of facts and statistics, with a rating for all players on both sides.

Reporter Scott Coomber told of the good-natured war of words between the two sets of fans, which ended with Chelsea fans light-heartedly booing their own team whenever they tackled a Gills player.

Photographer Paul Dennis produced a superb shot of a determined Gustavo Poyet of Chelsea hanging on to the shirt of Gillingham substitute Carl Asaba which was used across the centre page spread of the wrap-round.

Ron Green and his staff put the success of the wrap-round down to good planning.

“As soon as the tie with Chelsea was announced, the planning and the meetings started,” he said.

Though all the staff agree that a win against the Premiership giants would have been a dream come true, they believe the team – and the newspaper – can look back, heads held high, at a job well done.

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