Another Level

As calm is restored over Hayes Lane and plans for the next season begin to be made, the enormity of the achievement for my club is just beginning to sink in. Next season Bromley FC will play in The National League, the fifth tier of English football against former Football League sides and the big names in non-league football, many of them full time professionals. 

It was great to see so many long term fans celebrating the promotion on the pitch at the end and many of them took it on into the night and will do it again on the last day of the season at Gosport. 

The differences we can expect for next season include entering the FA Cup at the Fourth Qualifying Round, having squad numbers, featuring on a weekly highlights show on BT Sport and possibly even being shown live on that channel at least once. Inevitably on a personal level for fans there will also be an impact, admission charges will be higher, there will certainly be a whole lot more travelling and each game will probably feel a bit like a cup tie at least for the first few months. 

For myself away games will be an even rarer treat, probably limited to Welling, Woking, Dover, Braintree, Aldershot and whoever wins the Conference South play offs. I said a long time ago I would want Bromley to play at the highest level possible even if it meant myself not being able to afford to go and that time now seems to be on the horizon, which will take a lot of getting used to, but with so many new fans coming in it won’t pose any problem for the club if a few of us oldies can’t take the price hike. We are one promotion away from the football league and can probably expect well over 1,000 for most home games next season. 

Bigger crowds remove the social element of the game slightly as I have been to matches this year and not even seen people I would call good friends as it’s been so packed, the bars are always rammed by 2pm and you have to queue for well over half an hour to get to any of the food & drink outlets. These things will probably have to be addressed with extra staffing and provision to keep punters happy and money coming in. Hopefully now the Reddings have gone the club shop will be fully stocked again once we have a new manufacturer for the kit etc. sorted, so fans new and old will be able to wear their colours. 

Good problems to have for Jerry Dolke and the new investors as we move on up to the highest level we have played at in the modern era.                              

Two Points from Making History

I’m writing this on the afternoon before the biggest game in Bromley FC’s history since 23 April 1949 when they won the FA Amateur Cup at Wembley in front of 93,000. Now in April 2015 we face Weston Super Mare at home knowing that two points from our last two league games will be enough to see us promoted to the Conference Premier for the first time.

If we win on Saturday then next season Bromley will be playing in a nationwide league against professional football teams and feature in a highlights show on BT Sport. 

If you rewind just over ten years then this would have seemed impossible to most Bromley fans, struggling in the Ryman League Division One facing possible relegation to the Kent League at once stage, playing in front of barely 100 fans it’s fair to say we have come a long way under the ownership of Jerry Dolke and the management of George Wakeling and then Mark Goldberg. 

Having stood on the terraces at Hayes Lane for 38 of my 44years this still seems a little surreal, the nerves kicked in this afternoon and the excitement too. I’d kept a lid on it all week, but now I’m feeling it. Even when we finished second in the Isthmian League back in 1987/88 I never really believed it would happen, but now it really is in our own hands. 

We have had many great players and wins, but if this side takes us up then they must be written in Bromley FC folklore for what they have done.   

Should we achieve promotion it will be cheered by many, but this will mean most of all to the fans who have put in the hard yards, the likes of Sue, Garvo and Mash who travel everywhere, the likes of Ben and Mike who never gave up even when it was really bad and to many others who have stayed the course and richly deserve the good times, Roy, JB and many others who have been going long enough to remember our last league title win in 1961. 

I’m now little more than a home game fan who only occasionally travels, but I’m quite sure that I will get emotional if we go up as if I still attended every game. Bromley FC will always be a big part of my life and mean far more than it should to a normal level headed person, my incredible wife and son put up with me through all the bad times and the good and they will be hoping as much as anyone that I come home from the game on Saturday night with a smile on my face, who knows they may even join me at the club for a drink!