As the Gills battle to avoid relegation, just why has the club failed to build on its turn of the century hey-day?

If ever you need reminding of the fickle nature of football success, cast your mind back to May 1999 and a rather gloomy afternoon beneath the old twin towers of Wembley Stadium.

Gillingham Football Club were facing Manchester City in front of 77,000 frenzied fans in the play-off final. At stake was a place in the Championship - or Division One as it was known back then.

For the Gills it offered the tantalising possibility of back-to-back promotions - a remarkable achievement just four years after slumping into administration and facing expulsion from the Football League.

For City, it was the chance for a swift return after they found themselves in the third tier for the first time in their history.

With nine minutes to go, the game was on a knife-edge at 0-0. But a lovely flowing move saw Gills' frontman Carl Asaba toe-poke a goal which sent the travelling Medway fans into raptures. A little over five minutes later, Asaba's cheeky back heel sent his strike partner Robert Taylor clean through. A stunning finish and the Gills were two-nil with just three minutes to play. The Gills - and most of Kent - were in ecstasy. Surely they would reach a height the club had never before achieved?

But then fate intervened, as any long-suffering football fan will tell you happens with such crushing inevitability.

As the final minute of the 90 started ticking down, City grabbed one back. In the fifth minute of added-time, as the Gills fans urged the referee to blow the final whistle, City's Paul Dickov scored a remarkable equaliser.

Extra-time gave way to penalties and three-missed kicks later the Gills were travelling back along the M2 wondering just how they'd managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Fast forward 23 years