We'll always have Gillingham ... Farewell to Rotherham United nine-minute legend Georgie Kelly

Or was it the mad, thrilling mix of everything?

All Rotherham United eyes were on Georgie Kelly as he came on for his debut at Gillingham, all fingers pointing towards him. Quite literally in the case of the latter.

He'd been on the pitch for only nine minutes on that April 2022 day when that huge band of red and white banked on the temporary stand at Priestfield Stadium stirred.

Right in front of them, Chiedozie Ogbene robbed an opponent in the corner and the mob made it clear, en masse, to the winger where the ball next needed to be played.

Cue the unassuming, untested lad from Southern Ireland, cue the perfect first-time shot on the run, cue uproar. His beautiful late strike from just inside the area sealed a 2-0 victory and the rise to the Championship.

Cue the making of a Millers legend.

Twenty-one months on, he's left the club, sold to the division below on transfer deadline day, joining League One Carlisle United on a three-and-a-half-year deal to bring an end to an S60 association that will always bring smiles to lips and skips to hearts.

A few more good goals - another five, to be exact - were to follow after that golden afternoon in Kent but Georgie - always Georgie, never Kelly - didn't scale the same heights again.

He could come alive in the opposition box, he was gutsy and game, he was strong and willing, but the burly centre-forward plucked from part-time football in the Emerald Isle and given his chance by Rotherham - just lacked the all-round quality the Championship requires.

The holder of a Masters degree in finance and renewable energy, the 27-year-old is as honest as he is intelligent.

“I feel I can, at this level, be an asset off the bench,” he told me earlier this season. “I feel I can attack balls well. If we're bombarding the box late on I feel I can get on the end of something.

“In most games when I come on I feel like I nearly land on something or get half a chance or score.

“I feel like I'm impactful enough as a substitute and if that's my role then that's my role. I'm comfortable enough doing that if that's what's required.”

He was more aware than anyone that no matter how much energy - renewable or otherwise - he expended he wasn't at the level of being a regular pick.

The frontman had crossed the Irish sea at the age of 25, too late to have real refinement coached into his game, and his 51 outings included only three starts in the second tier.

Yet he made such an impression, and not just with that goal.

He'd been brought up in a family of about a million siblings in rural County Donegal and had learned to share.

That's exactly what he did of himself during his time in South Yorkshire. He opened up in interviews, he let you into his life, he asked questions as well as answered them, he grinned a lot and swore a bit in his quiet Irish burr. What a fecking good character.

Inside that distinctive shaved head was a probing, inquisitive mind. Sometimes I'd drop off copies of the Advertiser on visits to the Roundwood training ground and he'd always be the first to reach for one.

This season had brought one start in the Championship and one goal, a cross despatched at the back post with the clinical application of the sense and sharpness of a natural scorer in a 1-1 draw with Queens Park Rangers. Every goal he scored for the Millers came as sub.

The manager who'd signed him, Paul Warne, hadn't started him; neither had Warne's successor, Matt Taylor; neither had the next man in the hot-seat, Leam Richardson. The time had come.

“It was a mutual decision,” said Richardson. “Georgie had been here for a couple of years and hadn't played anywhere near as much as he'd have liked. He needs to go and start having the career he wants to have.

“I have nothing but respect for him. He's an absolutely outstanding guy, an outstanding professional, and everyone at the club wishes him well.”

His contract at Brunton Park gives the security of knowing that he will be in English football until well beyond his 30th birthday.

His style is suited to the lower leagues and he could turn out to be very effective for relegation-threatened Carlisle whether they manage to remain in the third tier or slip down to the fourth.

With the Championship drop looking likely at AESSEAL New York Stadium, many Rotherham followers would have preferred to see a loan exit for the rest of the campaign and a return in the summer.

The frontman has come to terms with what he is - and, just as importantly, what he isn't - and knows what he can give the Cumbrians.

“I'm not the kind of player who will have lots of nice touches and turns,” he said. “I was always striving for that and worrying if I could get there and be a really nice footballer.

“I'm more accepting now that I'm the kind of ruthless striker who gets on the end of things in the box. Coming to terms with that has gone a long way to settling me: this is what I am, that's what I can do.

“Confidence comes with competence and I'm happy enough now with what I'm good at.”

A move was in the offing a couple of weeks before the close of the winter window. Georgie gave notice on his apartment behind the fish-and-chip shop at Wickersley where he'd often cooked pasta for himself and Blackburn-based teammate Ollie Rathbone who was a regular overnight guest.

He bade farewell on social media: “Was a real privilege to play for such a great club! Enjoyed every minute of it.” The heart emoji that followed was in Millers red.

And, so, a true romance is over. Player and club still have feelings for each other, the affection between him and fans will endure. And, no matter what, we'll always have Gillingham.

It was the goal, it was the promotion, it was the run to the fans, it was the sunshine, it was the open-air away end.

It was the mad, thrilling mix of everything.