Season Review 2010/11

Bromley FC – Season 2010/11 Review

Season 2010/11 was another one of those that can be filed under ‘eventful’. Starting with seven league wins in a row and going on an unbeaten run until mid October we then failed to win a match for two months in the New Year, changed manager in January, lurched into financial crisis and generally imploded into a sea of discontent in the spring.

Summer 2010 had seen Mark Goldberg assemble a good quality squad for the new campaign bringing in well respected Keeper Craig Holloway, solid defender and captain John Scarborough, full back David Graves, exciting winger Tony Finn, tempting cult hero striker Nic McDonnell out of retirement along with bringing Paul Vines back to the club from Tooting. Warren McBean re-signed after several trials at league clubs giving us three impressive options up front.    

There was a cautiously optimistic buzz around Hayes Lane as the season began, despite losing Holloway to injury teenager Jamie Butler deputised before Wes Foderingham came in on loan from Palace and they both proved to be a more than adequate replacements. Butler starred in the first game of the season saving a late penalty to hand us a 2-1win over Dorchester. We quickly followed this up with a 4-1 win at Boreham Wood in torrential rain and kept it going with wins at home to Havant & Welling and away at Hampton, Bishop’s Stortford & Maidenhead. We certainly rode our luck in those first seven league games, but there was no mistaking the team spirit and fight that the squad showed, soaking up plenty of pressure and snatching late goals, Hayden Bird had overseen a rigorous pre-season training regime, which was really paying off with the player’s fitness levels. The winning run ended with a 1-1 at home to St Albans where we paid the price for missed chances.

We began the FA Cup campaign just edging past Stortford in a replay thanks to a late Tony Finn goal, but it was the next game in the old competition that started the decline away at Chelmsford. In the week leading up to the game we signed Marlon Patterson from The Clarets, Hayden Bird calling him the best player in the league in his position and it’s fair to say they were unhappy about his departure and refusal to play in the previous round. He made his Bromley debut at his previous employers and certainly felt their displeasure! Leading 2-1 we had a very late controversial penalty awarded against us and the tie went to a replay. The following Tuesday we suffered our first defeat of the season losing 3-0 in the replay being torn apart by the Essex side for the whole game. With confidence and team spirit battered we then lost 4-1 at Basingstoke as the cracks began to show in every department. Nic McDonnell walked out of the club again after failing to hold down a starting spot up front.

The next two months were consistently inconsistent, in amongst several draws we recorded a fantastic 2-0 win at Braintree, Wes Foderingham’s last of his loan deal, before a crushing 4-0 FA Trophy loss at Ebbsfleet. December came and so did the snow, this really was a winter of discontent, John Scarborough was released and Paul Vines loaned out to Maidstone in a swap deal with Danny Hockton amid rumours of budget cuts and in fighting in the squad Mark Goldberg spoke to the press about problems in the camp and in between numerous postponements we lost 7-0 at Weston Super Mare. New signing Howard Newton quickly about turned to Staines and told the NLP ‘Bromley FC was a bad place to be right now.’ Word!

With Bromley not having played a home game in nearly two months the club announced that players would not be paid over the Christmas period and asked the fans for help. They quickly rallied into action raising £2,500 and with a hastily re-arranged home game with Maidenhead sorted out the crisis was averted, sadly though we lost the game and so 2010 came to an end with Bromley still second in the table, but far from convincing. Harry Harding came back to the club on work experience from Reading to give the midfield a bit more life.

January started with a solid 1-1 at Dover followed by a hugely entertaining 4-3 win at home to Bishop’s Stortford with new boy Leon McKenzie netting a hat-trick, but it was then followed up with a poor 1-1 at St Albans and a humiliating 3-0 home defeat by Chelmsford who once again outclassed us. Trailing 3-0 at half time Mark Goldberg argued with his management team and was over ruled on tactics. This blew up again on the Saturday at home to Basingstoke and resulted with the manager walking out of the club 15mins before the kick off, inevitably we lost 1-0.

Hayden Bird stepped up from his assistant’s role to manager for the rest of the season and oversaw a 0-0 at Lewes in his first game in charge. The usual up turn in performances that comes with a managerial change followed with a stunning 2-1 win at Ebbsfleet and a narrow 3-2 at home to Weston. We were briefly second in the table with a minus goal difference! Bird held a manager’s forum that night stating that we would play attractive passing football and aimed to make the play off’s setting a target of 75pts, sadly it wasn’t to be. Home defeats to Dover & Staines followed, Marlon Patterson was released, Warren McBean transfer listed, Paul Vines eventually transferred to Kingstonian and a number of new faces from Hayden’s old clubs added including Liam Harwood who came back and impressed, midfielder Jamie England, Striker Charlie Ide who was guaranteed to give us goals according to the manager, but failed to score in 15 starts and imposing centre back Jerry Nnmani on loan from Palace.   

A 0-0 at Dorchester saw slight improvement, but then three more defeats followed before we gained another point at home to Boreham Wood who had a very solid Wes Foderingham in goal. Bird spoke of inherited problems in the squad and emphasised this wasn’t ‘his team’ to the press. League defeats at Woking and at home to Hampton sandwiched an unconvincing 2-0 win over Ebbsfleet’s Academy side in the Kent Senior Cup, but at least it was a win.

Jerry Dolke called the squad in for an emergency meeting and let them know what was expected from them, Warren McBean & Tony Finn were openly touted to other clubs, but there were no takers. Finally a league win came 1-0 at home to relegation threatened Thurrock, with Leon McKenzie scoring against his old club and we also notched an impressive point 2-2 at Farnborough. League champions elect Braintree came to Hayes Lane next winning 3-0 and more depressingly McKenzie was sent off meaning he would miss the last few weeks of the season.

Three consecutive wins followed, we reached the final of the Kent Senior Cup defeating our tenants Cray Wands 3-2 then we won 2-0 at Staines and 4-1 at home to Dartford. Things seemed to be back on the up, but sadly the momentum was halted with 2-0 defeats at Chelmsford and home to Eastleigh, finishing the league season in eleventh. The finale for 2010/11 would be the Kent Senior Cup Final at Dartford on May Day, the side was missing Jerrome Sobers (injured) & Leon McKenzie (suspended) along with Tony Finn who had been sacked for misconduct on the Saturday night, we failed to ever really get going losing 4-1 to the home side thanks to a 15minute battering just after half time. Fittingly Warren McBean scored our goal and probably his last for Bromley FC finishing top scorer for the third season in a row despite a terrible drought from November to April.

And so that was 2010/11, on teh face of it a mid-table finish and a cup final should be seen as success, but we should really have done better given the start we had and the positivity that it generated. From October onwards though it always looked very fragile and by the time Spring came we just looked like a ghost of the team that had started the campaign. This could be a busy summer for the men in charge to rebuild again for 2011/12 and reignite the interest of the fans after crowds fell away from 900 to less than 500 in a few months.

Col.