Breathing Space.

Two wins in the space of four days has given the club a massive shot in the arm and seen us move up to the dizzy heights of eleventh. A 3-1 home win over Eastleigh and 4-0 win at Dorchester not only saw Louie Theophanous break his duck for the club, but also the squad looking much more unified and determined following some recent departures.

With the reaper’s scythe a little further away from our shoulders we can focus on this weekend’s final sixteen FA Trophy game at Dartford. Our hosts are currently doing very well in their first season back in the Conference Premier Division and will provide tough opposition, but if we can deal with their direct style and set pieces, I still feel we have half a chance of doing something special as we did in the FA Cup last season.

It’s great to have a much more positive outlook on all things Bromley FC, the pressure is off on Saturday, and if the league form continues to improve then we might spend the second half of the season looking up rather than down.        

New Year, Same as The Old One?

Happy New Year to all of you! The Christmas period was a mixed bag for Bromley with two games falling foul of the wet weather and then a fine victory at Tonbridge was followed by an abject defeat to Sutton at Hayes Lane on 1^st January. The results leave us third from bottom and facing a very tough task if we are to avoid relegation at the end of the season.

Mark Goldberg’s inability to get the team to play well on a regular basis leaves many fans baffled when there are flashes of what could be in games like Kidderminster & Tonbridge. With the huge wage bill we have at BFC to be in the relegation places is nothing short of criminal and one feels for the owner Jerry Dolke who has to continually fund this under achievement now the take over of the club is rumoured to be dead in the water.

Should the worse happen and we do go down the potential financial fall out could put Bromley FC back into jeopardy, which given the hard work of those who run the club behind the scenes is very cruel, but football is a results based business and ours are poor.

The FA Trophy, Kent & London Senior Cups seem like sheer folly at the moment given the league position, I hope we put as much into the league games at home to Eastleigh and away to Bath & Dorchester as we do into the Trophy game at Dartford over the next few weeks.

I’m finding it very hard to keep the faith right now.      

Awesome Win, Now it's Time to Kick On!

With a fantastic FA Trophy victory over Kidderminster lifting the spirits it’s time to focus back on the relegation fight for the next few weeks starting with a very tough home game against Chelmsford City on Saturday. The Christmas fixtures could go a long way to shaping the second half of the season for Bromley with a double header against Sutton either side of a visit to Tonbridge.

If the squad and management show the same drive and commitment they did in last Saturday’s game in the league fixtures we could pull out of the bottom three going into 2013 and if rumours are true of just how far the budget is being stretched at the moment then they really do need to start justifying the faith Jerry Dolke has shown in them all.

By the time we travel to Dartford for the last sixteen of the FA Trophy on 12^th January let’s hope the pressure is off slightly and we can fully enjoy a local derby with a place in the quarter finals at stake. This is the first time in 40years that we have made it this far in the competition, which is a fine achievement. If we can go any further then the lure of a game at Wembley will be back in the offing for the first time since the FA Amateur Cup Final win of 1949, but it will mean very little if we lose Conference South status in the same season and the financial meltdown that will come with it.  

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Still looking over our shoulder

After a very good 2-0 replay win in the FA Trophy at Boreham Wood, followed by a vital three points at Havant & Waterlooville winning 2-1 things seemed to be on the up for The Ravens, but it all went a bit sour on Tuesday night. Not only did we lose 3-1 at local rivals Welling, but we also lost Moses Swaibu to his second red card of the season and he will now miss a big chunk of December’s games as he had already reached five bookings. The one game Moses will be available for seems to be the FA Trophy Second Round game at home to Kidderminster Harriers which will certainly help again Conference Premier opposition.

League wise we are still far too close to the relegation zone and Saturday’s home game against Farnborough is an important one ahead of a trip to Woking to play Hayes & Yeading Utd and thenthe big Trophy game on 15th.

We really missed the influential Elliott Buchanan against Welling, he’d set up both goals for Joe Piggott in the previous game and was starting to look like the player he’d been billed as. Hopefully his injury won’t keep him out too long. Once Swaibu had gone off in the 11^th minute and Welling had scored the resulting penalty for handball it was always going to be an uphill struggle, quite literally in the second half at PVR. We did make a game of it, but were caught pushing forward late on and ended up empty handed.

Although Mark Goldberg has seen fit to bring in new strikers it hasn’t solved the fact that they are often left feeding off scraps with no creativity in midfield. Now without Swaibu for a spell to marshalthe defence it gives Rob Gillman a chance to establish himself in his third spell at the club. The former club captain and player of the season re-joined from Whitstable with Jerome Sobers going out to Kingstonian on dual registration. Whether we can get Jerome back for the next month remains to be seen, I guess it’s up to MG to sort out once he comes back from his holiday which has seen him miss the last three matches!                    

Groundhog Season at Bromley FC

After a frustrating 1-0 defeat to Billericay in the league which saw us slip to fourth from bottom Mark Goldberg was quick to act to rectify our profligacy in front of goal. First the league’s second highest scorer Louie Theophanous came in from Staines and then another forward Joe Piggott joined on-loan from Charlton. MG has stated at least one player will be leaving to balance the books and it doesn’t take a genius to know it will be a striker!

We had one strike on goal against Billericay and unfortunately that fell to left back Marlon Patterson. Once again we failed to compete against a route one physical side who let us pass all day in front of the back line, but never through it. Tactical naivety also had played it’s part a long with the poor form of the strikers and that needs to be sorted out as well if we are to do enough to stay up. 4-3-3 is leaving us far too exposed and not playing to the strengths of the current squad which could comfortably accommodate 3-5-2 or 4-4-2.  

Away from the league we progressed through to the Quarter Finals of the Kent Senior Cup on Tuesday beating a young Gillingham side 3-1 and now on Saturday we are back in FA Trophy First Round action as we entertain Boreham Wood at Hayes Lane. Whether these successes in the knock out competitions proves to be a distraction from staying up or a boost to a poor season remains to be seen.           

Progress in The Trophy!

For the first time in five years we lasted more rounds than Audley Harrison in our FA Trophy campaign! A gutsy 2-0 victory at Staines Town in a replay on Tuesday night thanks to two quality goals from Tony Finn & Ali Chaaban set us up with a First Round Match at home to Boreham Wood on 24 November. The first game at Hayes Lane finished 1-1 after we had started well and faded badly in the second half, once again not making our dominance count when we had it, but Tuesdays result shows some real character from this current squad. Former Irish under 21 International Ian Daly finally got a start and reports back were that he had a good game and could be a useful addition to the forward line given we have a fairly poor record in front of goal so far in 2012.   

Before the next Trophy game we have a vital Conference South game at home to Billericay Town on Saturday and then a slightly less important game with Gillingham in the Kent Senior Cup when I expect MG to give a few squad players a run out. The last time we met Billericay was the Play Off Final in May 2007 that saw us reach this level of football, Town have now joined us after winning the Isthmian Premier last season. Three points on Saturday and we can hopefully go into the two cup games without the spectre of relegation looming too darkly over our shoulders.

              

Cup Football, Distraction or Bonus?

There was no cup romance to be had by the seaside as we were comfortably dispatched 3-0 by Fleetwood Town, all the goals and the game being wrapped up in 34 first half minutes. It was areal shame to see Bromley play so poorly until it was too late, they just didn’t play the way they usually do, instead they banged it long down the diagonals and played right into the home side’s hands. Once we got the ball down and played it was to late, but at least we gave opposition 60 places above us decent game for the second half. Fleetwood were great hosts and the day itself very enjoyable, I just hope if we do make it to the first round again we at least give a better account of ourselves on the pitch.

From playing in front of 1,696 on Saturday with 300 travelling up from Bromley, we then took on Harrow Borough in the London Senior Cup on Tuesday at Hayes Lane in front of 60! Elliott Buchanan’s sublime effort seeing us through 1-0 and setting up a Quarter Final tie at home to either Met Police, Beckenham or Tooting. This competition just really fails to capture the imagination of many fans right up until the final.

It’s cup football again at Hayes Lane this Saturday as we take on Staines Town in the FA Trophy. Once again a very uninspiring draw given they also play in our league and although there is prize money at stake I think most Bromley fans would swap a little progress in the Trophy for three vital league points right now. The league game on the opening day ended 0-0, let’s hope it’s different this time as a replay would not be well received.   

By the time we face Billericay at HL in the league on 17^th November we may be right back down in the mire again, but hopefully there is enough about the squad this year for us to pull clear earlier than the end of April like last season. If we hit a decent patch of league form then we might be able to enjoy a bit of a run in either the Trophy, London or Kent Cups without worrying about relegation.