During the 1995–96 English football season, Gillingham F.C. competed in the Football League Third Division, the fourth tier of the English football league system. It was the 64th season in which Gillingham competed in the Football League, and the 46th since the club was voted back into the league in 1950. After being in severe financial difficulties for several months, Gillingham had been saved from going out of business during the summer of 1995 by new chairman Paul Scally, who purchased the club for a nominal fee and appointed Tony Pulis as the team's new manager. Having signed many new players, Gillingham began the season strongly with four consecutive wins and remained in the top three positions in the Third Division for the entire season, finishing in second place. The club thus gained promotion to the Second Division seven years after being relegated from the third tier.
Gillingham reached the third round of the FA Cup, but were eliminated at the earliest stage of both the Football League Cup and the Football League Trophy. The team played a total of 54 competitive matches, winning 24, drawing 20, and losing 10. The team's top goalscorer was Leo Fortune-West, who scored 12 goals in the Third Division and 15 across all competitions. Goalkeeper Jim Stannard played the most games for Gillingham, being absent for only one of the team's 54 matches; he played in all the club's League matches, in which he kept 29 clean sheets and conceded only 20 goals, both new Football League records for a 46-match season. The highest attendance recorded at the club's home ground, Priestfield Stadium, was 10,595, for a game against promotion rivals Preston North End.
Background and pre-season
The 1995–96 season was Gillingham's 64th season playing in the Football League and the 46th since the club was elected back into the League in 1950 after being voted out in 1938. It was the club's seventh consecutive season in the fourth tier of the English football league system, which since 1992 had been named the Football League Third Division. In the 1994–95 season, Gillingham had finished 19th, three places off the bottom of the division.
In January 1995, after nearly a decade of financial difficulties, the club had been declared insolvent and placed in administrative receivership with debts of approximately £2,000,000. At the end of the 1994–95 season, with no rescue deal finalised, fans were unsure whether the club would still be in existence to start the next season; one takeover bid had already collapsed when the leader of the consortium resigned after adverse publicity surrounding his financial status. In early June, however, shareholders and creditors voted overwhelmingly to accept a takeover bid from Sevenoaks-based businessman Paul Scally, who paid a nominal fee to purchase the club. The deal was finalised at the end of the month, one day before a deadline imposed on the club by the Football League to be out of receivership or face expulsion, and Scally was officially named as the club's new chairman. He appointed former Gillingham player Tony Pulis to the vacant position of manager; Pulis had been out of football for a year since leaving the manager's job at AFC Bournemouth.