Six wins in the final eleven games of the season, however, meant that Gillingham finished the campaign 13th out of 24 teams in the division.

The highest attendance recorded at the club's home ground, Priestfield Stadium, during the season was 14,446 for the League Cup game against Tottenham.

Steve Butler, a 20-year-old forward, played during the pre-season on a trial basis and scored five goals,[10] but he was serving in the army at the time and the club could not afford to pay for his release.

His team were held to a 2–2 draw, however, after conceding a goal with two minutes of the game remaining,[12][13] and their winless league run continued with a 2–1 defeat away to Bristol Rovers.

[14] A goal from Tony Cascarino gave Gillingham their first league win of the season at the fourth attempt on 11 September as the team beat Millwall 1–0 at Priestfield.

The reporter for the Sunday Mercury contended that Gillingham could have potentially scored twice as many goals against a very poor Walsall team.

[19][20] A 2–1 win at home to Preston North End on 9 October took Gillingham up to fifth place in the Third Division league table.

[21][22] A week later, the team's run of wins came to an end with a 1–0 defeat away to Cardiff City; the result meant that Gillingham had won four out of five league games at Priestfield but only one out of five away from home.

[26] A goal from Bruce, scored from a penalty kick, gave Gillingham a 1–0 win away to AFC Bournemouth on 23 October and took them up to third in the table,[27] a position which at the end of the season would secure promotion to the Second Division.

[28] The next game drew Priestfield's biggest attendance of the season so far,[26] but the crowd of 5,919 saw Gillingham defeated 3–1 by Huddersfield Town.

On 27 December, a goal from Weatherly was enough to give them a 1–0 victory over Southend United at Priestfield, ending a run of five Third Division games without a win.

[40] Peacock was keen to sign Hodge on a permanent basis but the club could not afford the transfer fee which Everton stipulated.

[50] Cascarino, the team's joint top goalscorer for the season so far, made his return as a substitute having been absent for a month with a broken collarbone.

[52][53] On 9 April, first-half goals from Weatherly and Bruce gave Gillingham a 2–0 win over Newport County, but Bruce broke his leg late in the game as a result of a reckless tackle on Newport's Tommy Tynan;[54] he would be absent from the team for the remainder of the season and the first month of the following campaign.

[9][55] Gillingham extended their unbeaten run to six games with a goalless draw with Reading, and then beat Plymouth Argyle 2–1 at Priestfield with two goals from Cascarino.

[12] The team ended April with a 2–2 draw away to Wigan Athletic despite playing much of the second half with only ten men after John Sharpe was sent off.

As a Third Division team, Gillingham entered the 1982–83 FA Cup at the first round stage and were paired with Dagenham of the Alliance Premier League, the highest level of non-League football.

[62] A goal from Cascarino gave Gillingham a narrow win over their semi-professional opponents and took them into the second round,[63] where they faced Northampton Town of the Fourth Division.

[64] The initial match at Priestfield resulted in a 1–1 draw, necessitating a replay at Northampton's County Ground stadium.

[65][66] It meant that Gillingham missed out on a prestigious match at home to Aston Villa, the reigning holders of the European Cup, in the third round.