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The Shouting Men: Gillingham goalkeeper Stuart Nelson writes exclusively for the KM Group

Saturday’s match against Bradford was a special one for me after producing my 100th clean sheet in the Football League.

What made it extra special was that is also came on the day my granddad was born. He died 18 months ago and always followed my results. He always came across as proud of me.

I set myself little targets in the summer after getting myself back in the team.

Gillingham keeper Stuart Nelson Picture: Barry Goodwin
Gillingham keeper Stuart Nelson Picture: Barry Goodwin

One of them was to make my 150th appearance for the club, which I have done, to play 350 football league games and to make 400 first team appearances. They are all things that have been knocked off.

This was another target to get to and I was fortunate to do that last Saturday.
You can see how many goals players get but even for a striker, there aren’t too many people who have scored 100 football league goals.

They can, in theory, score two or more in a game but I can only get one clean sheet every game so I feel it is a pretty good achievement and one I am proud of.

When the dust settled on Saturday, it was emotional but first and foremost, it is all about the team and getting the result.

Clean sheets are a nice personal accolade to get but for me, it is all about this club and my team-mates and us getting results.

To top the day off with a fourth win in a row, getting back into the top two and making that milestone on my grandad’s birthday made it a real nice day.

My first clean sheet in the Football League was against Barnsley, for Brentford, and my next one came against Bournemouth the last game of the season.

We won 1-0 and stayed up. It’s a record I am pretty proud of.

Read the full column in Friday's Medway Messenger

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