HE presided over the most combustible of all Gillingham dressing rooms. Gathered under one roof were talented, high-octane players with explosive temperaments to match.

Gillingham legends Steve Bruce, Micky Adams, Tony Cascarino, Terry Cochrane, Dave Shearer, Dave Mehmet and Ken Price all had opinions and demanded to be heard.

Now Keith Peacock, probably the most revered manager in the club’s history and a man still respectfully referred to as ‘Sir’ by Gillingham fanzine Brian Moore’s Head, has lifted the lid off a golden era, still regarded by many supporters as the greatest in the club’s history.

In his autobiography, No Substitute, to be published next month, Peacock talks candidly about his six unforgettable years at the club - his sacking by an inexperienced board and the moment when heart-broken Gills fans carried him shoulder high down Redfern Avenue in an unprecedented outpouring of emotion.

He recalls what many long-serving Gills fans regard as the greatest game in the club’s history when, on a May Sunday in 1987 at Roker Park, Peacock’s Gillingham relegated star-studded Sunderland from the old Division 2 in a play-off semi-final.

Gillingham and Newcastle supporters had stood side by side on the terraces to cheer Sunderland’s demise in match of stomach-churning tension.

But most of all he talks of the players. The one who snubbed him on his first day in charge at Priestfield and the amazing training ground punch-up between two of the club’s undisputed hard men.

He recalls pleading in a magistrates’ court to get a star striker off a charge of assaulting a police officer and how he was lied to by another player after winning a not guilty verdict at a disciplinary hearing.

The book covers all his 42 years in football, both as player and manager.

From joining Charlton as a player, when he famously became English football’s first substitute - hence the book’s title - through to his time in the North American Soccer League with Tampa Bay Rowdies then on to Gillingham, Maidstone United, with Jim Thompson, and Queens Park Rangers until the present day as Charlton’s assistant manager.

No Substitute is to be published next month by Charlton Athletic Football Club and is priced at £14.99.