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!