Keep on Rocking.

After two impressive home wins in a row and slip up from Eastleigh, The Ravens find themselves top of the table again ahead of the next round of games on Tuesday night. The side showed real battling qualities against Eastbourne Borough to hold on to a 2-1 win last midweek and then showed real killer instinct in front of goal to defeat Maidenhead Utd 6-1 without ever really playing that well on Saturday! 

The main concern ahead of the game at Staines are injuries to three of our back four. Staines held Eastleigh to 0-0 on Saturday and former Bromley striker Louis Theophanous also missed penalty in the game, which could have dented The Spitfires even more. The news appears to be that Rob Swaine should be fit along with Jack Holland who returns from illness, while Devate McKain is an able deputy for Dean Poolley at full back if he doesn’t shake off his knock, sadly it looks like new signing from Bury Town Alan Bailey-Dennis will be out for a while after limping off on debut with his knee already heavily strapped.             

Tuesday is the first of four tough away games, three in the league at Staines, Eastbourne and Havant with a certain Kent Senior Cup Semi Final at Dover sandwiched in between on 1^st April.

If when we return to Hayes Lane on 8^th April to face Eastleigh we are still in the hunt then we will have done incredibly well.

There is a real buzz around Bromley FC at the moment, the quiz night to raise money for the installation of the new seats behind the goal was a great success in Friday night, The Ladies Team are also top of the league and in a cup final, the under age sides are doing well and crowds although still way short of what the team deserve are steadily up on last season.

Whatever happens to the first team from here it’s been a great season and good time to be a Bromley fan.    

The only down side was dropping out of the London Senior Cup, but given the grief involved playing AFC Wimbledon it's probably something we could do without right now.

Taking Stock

It’s fair to say that March 2014 so far has been a month to forget for Bromley FC, we came in to it 11points clear and on a good run of form and now half way through it we are no longer top and only have a point to show from our five games played.

We have operated with a small squad and tight budget all season which now it has come to the crunch has proved to be our downfall. A number of injuries to key players, especially at the back, and the inevitable fatigue of players who have played virtually every game has all taken it’s toll. Confidence has been shaken and one or two players seem to have had their heads turned by being top and lost focus on what got them there.

The task facing  Mark Goldberg and his management team is to somehow turn the run around and pick up some positive results in order to make sure we are not eaten up by the following pack and miss out on the play offs. We clearly need another striker to take the burden off Bradley Goldberg who had been excellent all season, but in recent times has cut an isolated figure on his own up front. Only Brad and the injured PJD have got into double figures goalwise this season and that is not the stats for a Championship bid. When we were previously promoted in 2007 we had three strikers who scored over 25goals! Either Jake Reid or Louis Dennis need to the chance to prove themselves at the club and add some extra spark in the forward line.  

There are still ten league games left and at least two county cup ties, starting with Eastbourne Borough at home on Tuesday night, let’s hope we can pick some form up as soon as possible and give ourselves another shot at success at the end of the season. Everyone involved at BFC deserves something for all their incredible hard work getting us here, ten years ago we were in Ryman League Division One South missing the cut for the new Premier Division.          

Tough at the Top

As we come into March Bromley are still top of the league which is quite some feat considering the size of our squad a relatively low budget compared to some teams in this league. Eastleigh are hot on our heals though six points behind with two games in hand they have a bigger squad, seemingly infinite budget and the bonus of being full time, meaning two or three fixtures a week is less of a problem to them.

Mark Goldberg’s sides have always suffered a dip in form once the pitches have got heavier and after the monsoon style winter we’ve had it’s no wonder results have taken a bit of a dip now we are playing again. It’s hard to move the ball round the way we like to when the mud is over your ankles! We probably don’t have the players to adapt to a different style of play and that’s if MG would even consider doing so.         

Play off chasing bitter rivals Sutton Utd come to Hayes Lane on Tuesday and we look set to face them with only one recognised centre back with Jack Holland on England C duty and Rob Swaine injured. We then head up Essex to face a resurgent Chelmsford City on Saturday a notoriously unhappy hunting ground for us without Swaine who will be suspended after his red card against Boreham Wood. If we can come away from these two tough fixtures with four points then we’ll have done very well, with two games a week for the rest of the month they’ll be no let up in the hard work ahead to achieve the highest league finish possible.     

As far as the race for the title goes this could be a make or break week, but whatever the outcome it’s important for Bromley fans to remember just how well we have done to be here in the first place.