In the latest of our “Twenty-two Days in May”, we conclude our chat with Gillingham’s own “Flying Scotsman” whose diving header against Wigan Athletic in the Play Off Final took Gillingham into the Championship for the very first time and secured his status in the history of Kent football forever.

Talking with KSN’s chief football writer Mike Green ANDY THOMSON remembers the day that changed his life forever…

It’s Play Off Final day, and Andy’s first memory was the sea of yellow that greeted the players as they walked on the Wembley playing area.

“I don’t think supporters realise how much their support in numbers and voice and noise can help a team,” he recalls, “and when we did walk out to see the sea of Gillingham fans it was incredible and they had a big, big part to play in the victory.”

“They were there throughout the season – numbers were smaller – but they were a real dedicated bunch of supporters who demand the best from their players and if you give them that, then they will always support you, and they definitely, definitely drove the team on that day and it was really a reward for them for everything they had gone through over the years, to give them the promotion was great for them.”

“I’d only ever been to Wembley once before – it was the previous November when England played Scotland in a Euro 2000 Play Off game; I went with Barry Ashby, Ady Pennock and James Pinnock and it was brilliant – Scotland won one-nil with Don Hutchinson scoring the goal and I was sitting in the England end with those three!”

“They’d already said, “don’t jump up if you score”… I didn’t I hasten to add! It was brilliant just to go to Wembley – I never ever thought about taking part in a game there and it really was a dream come true – and obviously to score the goal was really special!”

Gillingham of course sealed the win with two goals in the second period of Extra Time. With the score at two-one to Wigan, the Gills levelled through Steve Butler’s magnificent header.

“I hadn’t seen Steve in the box before,” Andy joked, “as he hardly ever trained! It was a goal that doesn’t get enough credit – it was an unbelievable finish and I’m sure it was Arjan De Zeeuw who played in the Premier League and Steve Butler got in front of him to finish and it doesn’t get the credit it deserves because of what happened next.”

“It was something that Steve could do as he was really good in the air and a good striker on his day and full credit to him at his age (he was 39) to score that type of goal which was just the lift we needed.”

Talking us through his own now legendary goal, Andy said, “What you try and do as a striker is to try and get blind side of the defender who’s marking you and the key thing for any striker is that if you go too early he can pick you up.”

“So you get on his blind-side/his shoulder; you make your first movement and as soon as he turns to look at the ball and where it’s coming from, you nip in front of him.”

“Timing is the key and is something that I worked on consistently and luckily enough that day, I timed it well and it was great ball in which took a little deflection but Ty (Gooden) had a really good delivery cross ball from wide areas and I just threw myself at it and it went in – I think!”

“I wasn’t one for over celebrating – I was quite laid back really – but watching the celebrations now, I think it’s quite funny to see me celebrating in that manner.”

“I ran into the corner and the players jumped on me and I’m sure one of them jumped on me and said “you lucky jammy Scottish b#####!” and that was it. I had another chance after that, but between scoring the goal and the end of the game was just a blur!”

That header will forever be remembered by the thousands of Gillingham and Kent football fans who descended on Wembley that day etching the name of Andy Thomson into the annuls of Kent football history forever – a fact that the goal scorer finds… “It’s a bit embarrassing in some ways,” Andy admits, “for only one goal, but sums up the Club and the supporters and how desperate they were to get to the next level in the Championship.”

“And it’s great as well as it’s not something that I focus on too much because I’m quite laid back and don’t take much notice of these things. It’s great for other folk and great for the supporters but I’ll be forever grateful for the support when I was there – I was injured a fair bit and when I did play I scored goals.”

“Injuries held me back through my career as I was never the biggest or strongest but I certainly enjoyed my time at Priestfield even though it was just that one goal, it’s still great to be remembered for scoring that goal – it gives me a great feeling to be part of that whole team.”

Now resident back in his native Scotland, Andy still looks out for his old club’s progress. “I still look out for the results and talk to Mark Paterson and Barry Ashby and know that they’ve got a Scottish manager – Steve Evans – I definitely look out for the scores.”

“It was a group of players and people, that you’ll never see it again – you don’t really get that type of characters in the game these days with people being different – it was a real strong group of characters; it didn’t matter if you were quiet or if you were loud or strong people and that’s why we got the success we did – it wasn’t necessarily down to ability levels; we had some good players with different abilities, a real, real strong group of people and it was great to be part of it – I really, really enjoyed my time at the club.”