Just for Kicks – Season 1994/95

It’s probably hard for anyone who wasn’t watching Isthmian League Football in the 1994/95 season to believe that this actually happened, but I assure you that it did. For one season the league agreed with the FA to trial the use of ‘kick ins’. The law change basically meaning that a player could choose to ether throw the ball in as normal or kick it instead. The kick would be treated as a throw in, meaning players could not be offside when receiving the ball, but also you could not score direct with a kick in. The idea being that it would provide more goal mouth incident and encourage more attacking play.

The consequence of the new initiative was that teams quickly worked out if you filled your team with 6ft plus, well built giants, you could use any restart from within 70yards of the opposition goal as a set piece and pump the ball into their box. Most Isthmian League games became a 90 minute series of set pieces and goal mouth scrambles. There were a few teams who refused to use them initially, sticking to the principles of football, but the majority embraced the route one nature encouraged by the rule.

Bromley manager George Wakeling saw his team challenge near the top of the table for the majority of the season, helped by the superb set piece delivery of Joe Francis and the aerial prowess of strikers Carl Richards, Micky Brown, Trevor Aylott and Richard Cherry.

There was one game at home to Molesey where Francis scored, or was directly involved in, three goals within a space of five minutes as Bromley won 4-3. One of the goals saw Francis drive the ball from a kick in directly towards goal, if The Moles keeper had left the ball it wouldn’t have counted, but in attempting to tip the ball over the bar he only got his finger tips to it and pushed the ball into the roof of the net for an own goal! Another incident that is carved into Bromley folklore happened away at local rivals Sutton Utd. With the game tied at 1-1 in the final few minutes, Bromley were awarded a penalty. Richard Cherry saw his spot kicked saved and cleared over the touch line by a home defender. Francis quickly returned the ball into play via a perfectly weighted kick in, which found Cherry still stood on the penalty spot distraught, the striker looked up just in time and headed the ball over the stranded Sutton keeper into the net to make it 2-1 to Bromley and win the game, heralding chaotic scenes behind the goal as the Bromley support went crazy.   

It wasn’t easy for teams to adapt to not using kick ins when playing in other cup competitions and teams selections had to change to allow for different types of players. Bromley entered six cup competitions along with a 42 game league campaign, they exited the FA Trophy, Kent Senior Cup, Club Call Cup and Diadora League Cup at the first time of asking, going one round further in the London Challenge Cup before losing 6-4 away at St Albans City. In the FA Cup The Ravens did beat Bognor Regis Town 3-2 at home before losing in a second replay 1-0 to Gravesend & Northfleet Utd, the home game being watched by 805. The biggest home gate of the season came on Boxing Day when 916 watched second place Bromley lose 2-0 at home to Dulwich Hamlet. The lowest home league attendance being the 253 hardy souls who turned up in the pouring rain for a midweek 6-0 home loss to bottom of the league Marlow at the end of March. The game should never really have been played with standing water all over the pitch, but the Ref insisted it went ahead and the visitors adapted better to the conditions.      

The traditional post Christmas slump saw The Ravens challenge for the top fade, slipping to seventh by the Spring before securing a sixth place finish with a decent run in, including a 5-0 win over Walton & Hersham thanks to goals from Mickey Brown (2), Pat Gordon, Keith Sharman & Frank Coles. Club Legend Coles along with Carl Richards, Andy Salako, Dean Francis, Ollie Adedji and Keith Sharman all played over 40 matches in the 52 game season. Joe Francis finished the season as top scorer.                

Unsurprisingly the Kick Ins experiment only lasted one season before being scrapped. For the football purist it was an anathema, it stifled any creative midfield play at all. For the likes of myself, who like the rough and tumble of lower league football, it was a lot of fun, but we knew it wouldn’t last.                

PREMIER DIVISION

 Pos  Name                            Pld    W    D    L   GF   GA  Pts

   1  Enfield                          42   28    9    5  106   43   93

   2  Slough Town                      42   22   13    7   82   56   79

   3  Hayes                            42   20   14    8   66   47   74

   4  Aylesbury United                 42   21    6   15   86   59   69

   5  Hitchin Town                     42   18   12   12   68   59   66

   6  Bromley                          42   18   11   13   76   67   65

   7  St Albans City                   42   17   13   12   96   81   64

   8  Molesey                          42   18    8   16   65   61   62

   9  Yeading                          42   14   15   13   60   59   57

  10  Harrow Borough                   42   17    6   19   64   67   57

  11  Dulwich Hamlet                   42   16    9   17   70   82   57

  12  Carshalton Athletic              42   16    9   17   69   84   57

  13  Kingstonian                      42   16    8   18   62   57   56

  14  Walton & Hersham                 42   14   11   17   75   73   53

  15  Sutton United                    42   13   12   17   74   69   51

  16  Purfleet                         42   13   12   17   76   90   51

  17  Hendon                           42   12   14   16   57   65   50

  18  Grays Athletic                   42   11   16   15   57   61   49

  19  Bishop's Stortford               42   12   11   19   53   76   47

  20  Chesham United                   42   12    9   21   60   87   45

  21  Marlow                           42   10    9   23   52   84   39

  22  Wokingham Town                   42    6    9   27   39   86   27

 

Enfield won the league, but turned down promotion with Slough taking their place in the Conference. Chesham, Marlow & Wokingham were relegated to Division One.

Twenty six years on Bromley & Sutton Utd are highest placed, competing in the National League. Only Dulwich Hamlet & St Albans compete at the equivalent level. Hayes & Yeading merged in 2009, Enfield split into two clubs, the fan run Town in the Isthmian League with the other in the Essex Senior League.

Wokingham (now merged with Embrook) along with Walton & Hesham have slipped the furthest down the pyramid to county league division one level, while Purfleet changed their name to Thurrock before eventually folding in 2017.      

Col