MARLON King scored twice for Gillingham in a memorable six-goal thriller at the Reebok in 2001 which threatened to derail Wanderers’ promotion chances.

Sam Allardyce’s side struggled on a re-laid pitch but led 2-1 at the break thanks to goals from Per Frandsen and Dean Holdsworth.

Holdsworth scored a third, tapping in Colin Hendry’s flick, but the Gills were not finished and it was future Wanderer Nicky Southall who pulled one back before King slid in an equaliser in the closing stages.

The two teams met for the first time in their history in September 1983, with the Gills running out 2-0 winners at Priestfield thanks to goals from Mark Weatherley and David Mehmet.

They completed the double with a 1-0 win at Burnden later that season with a goal from Tony Cascarino, who would go on to have great success at Millwall and play at two World Cups with the Republic of Ireland.

In November 1984 they continued a two-year run of remaining unbeaten in Lancashire as Dave Shearer and Terry Cochrane gave them a 2-0 lead against John McGovern’s men – who had been unbeaten at home to that point. Jeff Chandler halved the deficit with just a few minutes left on the clock but it was too late to repair the damage.

The Gills just missed out on promotion that season in Division Three and defeat at Burnden the following April proved a telling blow.

Tony Caldwell, Jeff Chandler and George Oghani scored the goals for Wanderers, then managed by Charlie Wright, with Cochrane and Joe Hinnigan replying for the visitors.

Gillingham continued to hold the Indian sign over Bolton in the 1985/86 campaign. David Cross’s goal was cancelled out by Hinnigan and Cascarino at Priestfield, and it was that man Cochrane again who scored the winner at Burnden as the Kent side once again came within a few points of automatic promotion.

Wanderers are now unbeaten in seven against Gillingham since 1987 and their last encounter in the League Cup in 2003 ended 2-0 with goals from Henrik Pedersen and Stelios – which was the Greek midfielder’s first for the club.