Tough Times at Christmas.

Bromley have ben unable to play due to the weather for the last few weeks, and are now counting the cost of losing so many home games. Jerry has said via the website that he is unable to pay the players and consequently they are free to leave. Fund rasing ideas have been called for and it's hoped the fans can help get the club out of this difficult spell.

Seventh Hell.

Well what can you say about a 7-0 away defeat? The home side obviously played well, but how a team that was top for so long and had a great record can suddenly ship 11 goals in two games while scoring none is quite baffling. The departures of Foderingham, Scarborough & Vines haven’t helped and two of these were avoidable, but there seems to be a deeper problem at the club with rumours of arguments about money in the days leading up to the game and disgruntled players showing cracks in what was a very unified squad. No doubt the truth will out over the next few weeks and I think we certainly haven’t seen the last of the departures if the talk of budget cuts are true. The fans can only hope for a good response on Saturday at home to Maidenhead, anything else and the wheels really will have come off.        

Not All Changes are Good

So the snow is slowly melting and it looks like Bromley will be back in action very soon, maybe at Weston this Saturday, but it certainly hasn’t been quiet at the club since the last game. There was the awful news that the club had been burgled and vandalised then it emerged that Paul Vines was being loaned to Maidstone for initially a month with former Raven Danny Hockton coming in the other direction, not a popular move with many. We hadn’t recovered from that when the news broke that team captain John Scarborough had been released.

It was around this time last season that changes were made to the team challenging for the play offs and they effectively derailed our challenge and left us mid-table. What is actually in the managements minds is beyond me, I guess we should wait and see how it goes, but the vibes are bad and we have re-employed a player who let us down badly when he was here before. We’ve let go two of our hardest working players at the time in the season when you really need to dig in and battle, I can’t help but feel these are poor decisions and could cost us long term.            

Outclassed and out of the Trophy.

A very poorly son meant I missed the trip to Northfleet, but reports back were not good at all. A makeshift looking side without Wes Daly and a proper right back got battered 4-0 by a rampant Ebbsfleet and knocked out of the FA Trophy.
Time to regroup and get things sorted for teh next game. Hopefully we'll have Graves & Daly back for the trip to Weston on Tuesday 30th.
So it's the league and the Kent Senior Cup we still have a shout in going into the winter, if we can get players back there is no reason why we can't have a pop at both.   

Top Again!

A fantastic team display at Braintree saw us run out 2-0 winners at the leaders who had only conceded 4 goals at home all season before this game. Salifou Ibrahima's brave header and Tony Finn's remarkable 70 yard run and finish gave us the victory, but the whole team played their part especially the defence and Keeper Wes Foderingham who was playing his last game for us on loan from Palace.
Those who were critical of Warren McBean & Jerome Sobers earlier in the season had to eat their words as both players made immense positive contributions to this fantastic win.
This was the first time we've won at Cressing Road and it was done by soaking up the pressure and hitting them on the break, it makes a nice change to be the inflictor rather than victim of such a result!
Braintree sported a new orange kit, this replaced the white one from last season and the traditional yellow and blue of previous years. It may make money for the club to constantly rebrand and fleece the fans for new merchandise, but it stinks.    
Now we have a week off before facing Ebbsfleet away in the FA Trophy on Saturday, I think a replay would be a good result, even though they claim they will be tired follwoing their lucrative FA Cup replay on TV against Wimbledon on the Thursday.     

First V Second!

So off we go up to Essex for the game against the league leaders Braintree after dropping four points from two home games we should really have won. Farnborough declined to come out and play settling for a point and leaving Binns & McDonald on the bench, then Woking made the most of their chances while we missed so many of ours and left Hayes Lane with a 2-2 thanks to an injury time penalty. The trutch was that we should have been out of sight before the fairly soft spot kick for ball to hand was awarded.
Tomorrow will probabaly tell us if we are the real deal and challenging or just still benefitting from a great start. I'll take a point right now!       

A Win Down By The Sea!

A fairly comfortable 2-0 win down at Margate saw us progress in the Kent Senior Cup thanks to Paul Vines'  first half double. Leon McKenzie got 90mins and Liam Harwood made his debut from the bench. It's sad to see the damage done to Hartsdown Park, which used to be a lovely ground and is now all but rubble and temporary buildings after the money ran out before the improvements could be started.
Next up we have Farnborough at Hayes Lane quickly followed by Woking, two tough games in a row against teams with decent support who you'd expect to be aiming for the play offs come April.   

A Winning End to October

After a disappointing month which saw us slip from the top of the table and exit the FA Cup, it was good to finish October with a win at Thurrock. It can be difficult to play a team who has just changed manager, but we showed the character & spirit of our August displays and capped it with two good goals. The hysteria on the forum that greeted the draw at home to Lewes now seems to have calmed down and it was great to see Warren McBean score again and silence the critics.

Next up it’s Margate away on Tuesday night in the Kent Senior Cup, with the club only entering three cup competitions this year hopefully they will take it more seriously and look to win it. The good news is that Leon McKenzie will be able to play in this one.           

Stuttering into Winter, but Still on 25pts!

After a Saturday that saw the first team play a reserve fixture and only just beat Ebbsfleet's second string, losing Arron Fray for two month swith a shoulder injury on the way, it was back to league action on Tuesday. Basement boys Lewes came to HL and they were well worth the point they got as once again Bromley miss fired. This was their manager Steve Ibbotson's last game in charge and they gave him a fighting send off.
We lost Harison Dunk early on to an awful foul, which should have been a red card, but in the end we still should have created mor ethan teh one effort on taget we had in 90mins. It seems Dunk is now being targetted by teams who see him as a threat and know he is carrying an injury at the moment. Tribute to his quality, but not the refereeing at this level.
Next up it's a trip to Thurrock, never an easy prospect, we'll need to find some of that early season form and spirit again to bring anhything back from the other side of the river on Saturday.      
Nic McDonnell has deceided to hang up his boots again and I'd like ot thank him for all those great goals and memeories in his spells at Hayes Lane. Replacing him is Leon McKenzie who has shown a real desire to be at Bromley and let's hope he finds his scoring touch once he is free to play again after a  5 game ban.    
The next few weeks will see if the start of the season was a run of luck or foundations for a play off bid, one win in ten matches suggests it may be a long winter ahead.   

First League Defeat and Off the Top.

A 4-1 reverse at Basingstoke saw us slip from the top down to third and face up to a few home truths about how good we actually might be. Defensive errors, slack midfield play and a blunt attack have all added up to one win in eight games, two consecutive defeats, in which we scored one and conceded seven.
The players were shown a dvd of the goals and were then put through their paces in a pre-season style training session on Tuesday in order to try and rectify the recent poor form ahead of the next game at home to Lewes on 26th October (Unless The Rooks are in involved in an FA Cup replay).       

First Defeat.

This is the first blog entry on this site, all the previous entries were on the http://www.confsouth.co.uk/ site, but that is now all but finished. Sveno and I have decided to put it straight on our site http://www.backtohayeslane.co.uk/ instead.
Tuesday night saw our first defeat of the season, not bad seeing as it was 12th October, exiting the FA Cup to Chelmsford who were worthy winners on the night. Aside from Ref Mr Cook being a complete fool, we could have no complaints about the result, although whether we should even have been replaying the game at all is another matter entirely given the dubious nature of The Clarets 96th minute penalty in what was meant to be 4mins of added time.
It certainly has been an oustanding start to season 2010/11, but now we have to see how the side responds to it's first loss and what effect it will have on results in the next few games. The harsh fact is that we've only won one game in seven and the lead at the top of BSBS is down to one point, Basingstoke away on Saturday is the first test to see if we can pick up again...