Cutting the Cloth

After the inglorious FA Cup exit to Heybridge Swifts the inevitable budget cuts kicked in this week. Lewis Carey & Jacob Erskine were released while Warren McBean left for Canvey Island.  MG told the press he would have to trim things down following the defeat and so it has proved to be.
For those who are left Saturdays game at Sutton will be a massive test, win or draw and they will have gone some way to proving their worth to the owners who will someway have to find the funds to keep the team together without the cup income, lose and I think one or two more will be left go.
The game sees second play third in a local derby that always has a little extra spice. Add the fact that former Bromley captain  Ali Fuseini now ply’s his trade there, it should be interesting!
I came in for some criticism from some long term fans for my comments on facebook about the cup exit, but I stick by them. The approach of the players to both cup games was far from right and after getting away with it against Burgess Hill we came unstuck two weeks later.
While those who work behind the scenes looked totally shell shocked by the loss and the implications of the lack of income from a cup run it didn’t seem to have enough impact on the ones who could most effect the result. Although it does now of course as two of the starting line up are no longer with the club.      
Let's hope that the guys still with us seize the opportunity to keep us up in the frame and get one over an old foe.          

Keep The Eyes on The Prize.

After just about doing enough to get through in the FA Cup beating Burgess Hill 1-0, we then put out an mixture of first team and academy players in the Kent Senior Cup against Cray Wands and edged our tenants out 3-2 with an injury time winner from 17 year old Tom O’Connor. This was the managerial debut of Cray’s new men in charge Keith Bird & Micky Paye who previously ran Bromley’s Reserve side. Among the eight debutants in the Wands side were the familiar faces of Carlos Talbot & Helge Orome, both of whom played for Bromley in the final of the London Senior Cup last season.

Mark Goldberg took a risk not fielding any of the regular back four and filling the bench with teenagers against a highly motivated team looking to impress their new managers, but it all worked out in the end with some of the Academy players putting in solid performances and Jacob Erskine getting off the mark in his latest spell with the club following his release from Whitehawk. With Warren McBean out of the country and Jay May injured Erskine has the chance to push Shamir Mullings for the target man spot next to Bradley Goldberg.

On Saturday we travel to Boreham Wood who are always a tough prospect and we’ll have to raise our game again to get anything out of this and keep up near the top of the table. Let’s hope the lethargy we showed against Burgess Hill was a one off. The FA Cup draw has been kind to us again with a home tie V Heybridge Swifts of Ryman Division One North, but if we are complacent again the season could have a very different complexion in a few weeks.         

There is a strong character and team ethic at the club right now and it needs to come to the fore for the good times to keep rolling.