The Paul Scally years - almost three decades of highs and lows at Gillingham Football Club

After 27 years at the helm Gillingham chairman Paul Scally is taking a break from the club. We look back at almost three decades of highs and lows for Gills during the Scally era.

June 1995: Despite rumours of a showbusiness consortium considering an offer to buy Gillingham, unknown businessman and Millwall fan Paul Scally is announced as the new owner after purchasing the club from Tony Smith. Neil Smillie had been in caretaker charge of team affairs since Mike Flanagan's departure in February, but Scally appointed former Gills player Tony Pulis as manager and it proved a masterstroke.

1995-1999: Gills began the 1995/96 season in Division 3 of the Football League but stated their promotion intent from the off. Four successive wins set the tone and they went on to finish as runners-up with striker Leo Fortune-West scoring 15 goals. With promotion in his first season, things could not have gone much better for Scally.

If any Gills fans feared they would struggle to hold their own in Division 2 those concerns were misplaced. With 23-goal Iffy Onuora leading the line, Pulis' side finished 11th, and they did even better in 1997/98, Ade Akinbiyi also comfortably in double figures with 22 goals, as Gillingham finished eighth.

Twelve months later Gills were minutes away from English football's second tier in one of the most famous play-off finals in history. After finishing the league season in fourth place, they led Manchester City 2-0 after 89 minutes at Wembley, before Kevin Horlock in the 90th minute and Paul Dickov in the fifth minute of injury time denied the Gills. The game went to penalties with Gillingham beaten 3-1. Pulis, meanwhile, was sacked by Scally the following month to be replaced by Peter Taylor.

2000-2004: W