Today we turn the “Twenty-two Days in May” spotlight on a player who needs little introduction to Kent’s football fans.

A major part of the Gillingham side that beat Wigan, he’s managed the club twice and in 2005 the Gills fans voted him the Club’s greatest ever player.

Now boss at Dover Athletic for a second time, he needs no introduction – it’s Hessie’s turn as KSN’s chief football writer Mike Green’s talks with ANDY HESSENTHALER…

The first part of our conversation who Andy focuses on how the Gills got back to Wembley after the heartbreak of 1999 against Manchester City.

“Traditionally the side that loses the Play Off Final struggles the following season,” Andy told us, “and that was probably in the back of people’s minds. I think we were very fortunate to keep that group of players together that year after and the disappointment from the City game with the experience that we had.”

“I think that it helped us and pulled us together and it galvanised us even more that we can still go and get promoted the year after.”

“I’ve played in a lot of teams but I’ve never known a group of players like that – we were so much together on and off the pitch – it was a real family effort really in terms of the boys coming in every day and training; we had get togethers with our families after games; everyone knew each other which is something I don’t think happens today, not the whole group – the whole group knew each other and their families and their kids and everything and I think that was just the bond we had as a group of players, as the way we were off the pitch certainly helped us on the pitch!”

“That never say die and help each other out when we did have games where things went against us, we seemed to pull together and responded. That group was undoubtedly the best that I’ve ever played with.”

2000 proved to be a historic year as they very nearly reached Wembley on two fronts as they reached the last eight of the FA Cup as well as Andy recalled.

“I still think about those games now, because they stand out more than anything because I don’t have a fantastic memory for games – people ask me about my Watford games and I can’t remember many of them – but you can’t not forget the likes of the Man City’s, the Wigan’s, you just can’t forget about them and the boys that you worked with day in and day out to have those moments.”

Some people say to this day that the Play Offs that season shouldn’t have even come into play that season as the Gills should have gone straight up.

“The Wrexham game,” Andy exclaimed, “We’ve talked about that game quite a lot! We pretty much let ourselves down that day because if anything I thought that we were over confident that day – we can do this now, we can wrap it up and not going through the Play Offs again and that situation again – unfortunately it didn’t happen; we just didn’t turn up that day.”

“But again, that’s credit to the group of players – that game could have affected us after not achieving the automatic promotion, but it didn’t! It perhaps made us more determined; we’d messed it up and we’ve got to go and do it through the Play Offs again!”

And it was at Stoke in the Semi Finals of the Play Offs that Hessie struck arguably the most important goal of his illustrious career.

“It was the best goal in my career one hundred percent!” he beamed. “With the Preston game the year before where I got the goal in the second leg that took us to Wembley as we’d drawn the first leg and I scored and an early goal at Priestfield saw us through – my goal scoring record from midfield I suppose wasn’t particularly great (20 goals in 303 appearances for the Gills), but in terms of scoring important goals I’ve done pretty well.”

“But in that Stoke game itself – I watched it a few weeks ago just the highlights – we didn’t get off to a good start and got ourselves back into it. But then being three-one down, you think that even though we “only” had to win the second leg two-nil at Priestfield.”

“We were going to still give ourselves a mountain to climb type of thing in the second leg. It was just one of those things and I remember it clearly – I picked the ball up on the left-hand side and knew that the clock was ticking. I cut inside and it opened up for me and I had to have a shot!”

“I know that Stevie Butler was asking me to pass it to him or whatever he was shouting to me, but I only had one thing in mind, and I am a bit of a gambling man so let’s have a pot!”

“Fortunately, the ball popped up and bobbled up a little bit and if it hadn’t,” Andy admitted chuckling, “I don’t think that I would have reached it to be honest! It popped up at the right time and went in like a rocket.”

“I can remember as soon as it went in, I just headed straight to the Gills fans behind the goal – it was electric – and it just felt like that goal gave us a major chance back at Priestfield and in the end it felt like we won the game and we’d lost three-two, it did actually feel as though we’d won.”

“I spoke to my family after the game – my two brothers – and my older brother looks a little bit like me, and he told me that he’d never had so many kisses from Gills fans in his life walking back to the mini-bus that they had after the game.”

“He said that the atmosphere was phenomenal just leaving the ground even though we’d lost, everyone seemed to have confidence that we were going to win the game at Priestfield and fortunately for us it turned out that way!”

“The goal completely changed things and I suppose we had to be careful as that goal had changed the complexion of the tie going home, we had to be careful and mindful that we didn’t get carried away with it as we still had a job to do in terms of making sure that we did it at Priestfield.”

“It was really quite ironic if you think about the first leg as after the game, their manager was moaning about the time added on when I did score bearing in mind what had happened to us twelve months before!”

Next time we conclude the “Twenty-two Days in May!” with the second part of our chat with Hessie as he remembers the Play Off Final… and beyond!