Gilkes played more than 550 times as a professional and made his name with the Reading side that nearly won promotion to the Premier League in the early 1990s.
They finished second in the new Division One in 1995 (only missing out on automatic promotion due to the streamlining of the FA Premier League from 22 clubs to 20) and reached the playoff final, holding a 2–0 lead until the 75th minute before losing 4–3 in extra time to Bolton Wanderers.
He joined Wolves just weeks before the end of the 1996–97 season, as they were edged out of the automatic promotion places to Barnsley and lost to Crystal Palace in the playoffs.
A year later they finished ninth, missing out on the playoffs, but enjoyed a run to the FA Cup semi finals where they narrowly lost to Arsenal.
[4] In November 2015, Gilkes was appointed first team manager for the remainder of the 2015–16 season,[5] after Jason Bristow agreed to step down from the position, with Basingstoke Town at the bottom of the Conference South.