Gillingham’s FA Cup game with Stoke City in January will be officiated by none other than Premier League referee Mark Halsey.

Many Gills fans will remember Halsey for being the man in the middle for the Play-off final with Manchester City at Wembley in May 1999.

That day saw Gillingham go from 2-0 up with just sixty seconds to go courtesy of goals from Carl Asaba and Robert Taylor, to being on the wrong end of a penalty shoot-out. All that came about with City scoring one in the last few seconds of normal time from Kevin Horlock before Halsey decided that there should be five minutes of added on time.

With Gillingham seemingly set to cling on to the win and be promoted, up popped Paul Dickov to break their hearts and send the game into extra time and ultimately penalties.

City won the shoot-out 3-1 with Paul Smith, Adrian Pennock and Guy Butters the men to miss for The Gills.

It turned out to be then manager Tony Pulis’ last game in charge of Gillingham and fans that were there will always blame Halsey for finding those five minutes.

Rumours surfaced after the game of Halsey celebrating with City players after the game, although nothing has ever been proven.

What did happen though was City began their long journey to the top of the Premier League, whilst Gillingham had to wait another year before coming back to Wembley and gain promotion via a play-off win over Wigan under the stewardship of Peter Taylor.

So when the FA looked at who to officiate Pulis’ return to Priestfield, with all that entails, who else could they appoint other than Halsey?

You couldn’t script it and having the 50 year old in charge for the game will surely add to the tension inside the ground in what is expected to be a sell-out.