YET more doom and gloom for us long-suffering Gills fans this week, as we were hit with a double whammy.

We not only continued what clearly seems to be a New Year's resolution of not scoring in 2005 (we’ve now scored just twice at the right end in seven matches) in a poor game with our arch rivals from Millwall, but the ticket prices were announced for the 2005-06 season.

And, despite the fact that we are far from knowing which division we will be playing in, the prices have gone up.

Watching Gillingham is already one of the most expensive hobbies in the Championship – and if the worst happens in the next 14 games, the prices for League One football will seem even more ridiculous.

While I don't doubt the club's statement that revenue from season tickets has dropped this year, why hit us with even higher prices for next year?

It is surely sound financial sense that 10,000 people paying £15 is more beneficial that 7,000 paying £20.

But it's not even that cheap. For category AAA games – the most expensive, although I don't have a clue which League One teams would be worthy of such a billing – the cheapest adult tickets remain unchanged at £20.

However, the dearest seats in the house have gone up by £3 to £37. Who in their right mind is going to pay £37 to watch a game at Gillingham? It's too much to pay for Championship football, and without wanting to sound too negative, we have to face the reality that we may not even be in the Championship next season.

To put it into perspective, Northampton Town are one of the promotion contenders in League Two, so they could quite conceivably be among our league opponents next season.

However, when we played them in the League Cup in August, despite tickets being just £10 in some areas for adults, only 3,108 people turned up.

I genuinely fear how few people would come through the gates for a league clash with them next year when the price is doubled…

But, let's be honest, none of us want to play the Cobblers next season, so we'd better get our fingers out and start getting the results to keep us up.

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