Keep on Rocking!

After an impressive 3-0 win over Staines we then won two more league games both 3-2 and both coming back from 1-0 down. An experiment in changing formation caused us a few problems at Concord Rangers, but after trailing MG identified the error and in the second half with the old shape restored we were too hot to handle for the newly promoted Essex Seasiders. Then came Basingstoke at home and another impressive attacking display with Bradley Goldberg in spectacular form and Shamir Mullings making the most of an injury to Jay May and putting in a shift as the target man. The latest fine run leaves us in second place and already on 21points which is a great foundation to have ahead of the cup campaigns that tend to dominate the Autumn.

Next up Burgess Hill Town of Ryman League Division One South visit Hayes Lane in the FA Cup 2^nd Qualifying Round on Saturday before we ‘travel’ to tenants Cray Wanderers next Tuesday in the Kent Senior Cup. If we can avoid complacency against Burgess Hill and play to our potential then we should seize the opportunity to bring in the extra money available from the FA for a cup run to keep things going and also give a few fringe players some game time against Cray who are having a very tough season so far.

The vibe at Hayes Lane is very positive right now and a credit to all involved at the club.

Long may it continue…          

Big Test on Saturday

After defeat at Eastleigh saw us slip from the top of the table we now host Staines Town at Hayes Lane on Saturday in what will be another marker as to how much we have improved this season. Having drawn our last three meetings at home to The Swans, Marcus Gayle’s side are bound to be a tough prospect again, with former Bromley striker Louie Theophanous now back at the club we signed him from for a hefty fee last winter.     

On Saturday we took a bit of a battering in the first half from a very decent Eastleigh side before rallying and almost claiming a point in the second half. If we can take the positivity from the later half of the game into Saturday then we have to stand half a chance of finally claiming a home win over Ali G’s hometown. So far we have managed to win games this season that we wouldn’t have done last term, so let’s hope that trend continues.  

Then on Tuesday we travel to the Essex coast to play newly promoted Concord Rangers, a first for most Bromley fans. 

In the week MG brought in former Newport and Bristol Rovers winger Ben Swallow to add options to the squad. With Mike Jones loaned out to Canvey Island, Mark has already hinted he may be sending more fringe players out on dual registration to keep match fit.   

August ends with Bromley top!

August comes to an end with Bromley nicely placed top of the table winning four out of their opening five games and letting in just three goals. After the Bank Holiday defeat at Bishop Stortford, The Ravens fought back with a win at home to newly promoted Gosport Borough, although they certainly made hard work of it.

After the euphoria of crushing Tonbridge 5-1, we came up against Stortford who were a typical Rob Stringer side. Big, direct, hard working and organised. In the end we had no answer to break down the machine and were a little fortunate to keep it down to 1-0, not only did Lewis Carey save a penalty, but they hit the underside of the bar and Rob Swaine cleared one off the line. Although we did have a good 20minute spell just before half time, including a goal ruled out for offside.           

Saturday saw us start really well and at 2-0 we looked comfortable winners, but some complacency and a late penalty saw us running the ball into the corner and desperately running the clock down at the end.The two goals we did score though were testament to the powerful additions to the squad MG made in the summer with Rob Swaine, Ashley Nicholls and Steve Smith all involved. Mark chose to ring teh changes in midfield after the first defeat and Nicholls and Waldren earned their call ups with big performances.    

The next game sees us travel to one of the promotion favourites Eastleigh if we come back from Hampshire with even a point it will be a great result and keep us up there.

The more cynical Bromley fans have said that we haven’t played a good side yet, but we’ve won games that we would have lost last season and already got a quarter f the points tally needed for league safety. the team looks united and motivated so there are plenty of reasons to be happy at Hayes Lane right now.  

Great Start to The Season

Two games into the season and a more than reasonable start to the campaign. MG gas told the press he is happy with the team and is aiming to finish in the top half and maybe even achieve out highest Conference South finish. 

The 2-0 win at Hayes & Yeading was a solid display, while the 4-0 win over Whitehawk on Tuesday showed some real quality and defensive resolve.  

He has publicly called Bradley Goldberg and Jay May as his preferred strike partnership and backed them to score goals. How long or whether Shamir Mullings or Warren McBean will be happy as understudies remains to be seen. In midfield Steve Smith and Elliott Buchanan have staked a claim to the central spots which leaves two other quality players in Ashley Nicholls and Danny Waldren also on the fringes. Tough decisions for the manager, but you can’t argue with results so far. The wing play of Brendan Kiernan has been a joy to watch and we’ll have our work cut out to keep hold of him. On current form, I’d tip him to be the next Raven making the step back into professional football.     

With a busy Bank Holiday schedule of Tonbridge Angels at home and Bishops Stortford away coming up the squad may need to be rotated to keep everyone fresh before the visit of newly promoted Gosport Borough to Hayes Lane finishes the month. Let’s hope by then we are still looking good. 

The New Season Awaits

Here we go again then, after the longest, most drawn out and inconclusive pre-season I can remember, the Conference South season finally kicks off on 17 August. It’s been a strange month or so building up to the real thing, we’ve had quite a large number of prospective players come and go and even now it’s unclear what Mark Goldberg’s starting line up will be against Hayes & Yeading at Woking FC. We appear to have a good number of decent midfield options, Kiernan, Smith & Nicholls look great signings, while the back line although pretty solid has nothing in reserve past the four players who have started almost every friendly, Pooley, Swaine, Holland and Anderson. Up front MG has yet to unearth a real goal scorer. May & Mullings compete for the target man spot, while Bradley Godlberg and Warren McBean vie for the poachers role. The smart money is on May & Bradley to start the first game with last season’s top scorer Pierre Joseph Dubois not featuring in the last game against Cray Wands. With Joe Welch injured and George Howard singed by Gillingham we’ll start our league campaign without a settled keeper just as we did two years ago. Ben McNamara had been brought in on-loan from Nuneaton after Reserve Keeper Max Huxter had a game to forget against Dulwich Hamlet, fingers crossed Welch won’t be too far away from fitness after missing his second pre-season in a row through injury.  

It looks like it will take some time for things to settle down and the team to take shape still, there has been a good buzz about the squad and hopefully the positive vibes will continue whatever the result next Saturday and beyond.     

            

Twelve Players Signed Up and MG Staying?

After a couple of quiet weeks media wise the club announced six new signings and the re-signing of another six on Wednesday night. It’s funny just how worked up a small number of fans were getting about the lack of updates prior to this announcement, it wasn’t too long ago that you had to wait for the first friendly to find out who was still at the club and who was trying out.

Staying at the club are popular figures Joe Welch, Mike Jones, Danny Waldren, Warren McBean and Elliot Buchanan, joining are Alex Bentley from Hornchurch, Jay May & Rob Swaine from Billericay, Sabir Mullings from Southend and Ashley Nicholls from Dorchester. It’s not even mid-June yet and we have a full team signed up! The club is also in talks with last seasons top scorer Pierre Joseph-Dubois about staying for another season.

Despite hinting at a move away from the club in April Mark Goldberg appears to be staying as manager for another season and has urged the fans to work with him as they aim to stay within budget and compete against some very affluent opposition. Achieving league safety will be the first aim for The Ravens and hopefully avoiding another nervous April. A mid-table finish with a cup run and a county cup win would no nicely, two of which we achieved last season, but over spent in doing so. If MG gets the mix right this season with battlers rather than ballets we could at least match what was achieved in 2012/13.                

Bromley FC 2012/13 Season Review

Bromley FC Season 2012/13 

The 20012/13 season was a strange affair for all concerned with Bromley FC, it started with optimism that the squad who finished last season would kick on from surviving relegation and possibly even mount a play off challenge, but while the cup competitions provided a lot of joy the league proved to be almost as difficult as the previous campaign and saw the relationship between manager and supporters turn sour for a while. 

After a solid pre-season it appeared that the main problem with the side again would be a lack of goals, Ali Chaaban & Richard Pacquette joined the team to give us more goal scoring options alongside last 2011/12’s player of the season Hakeem Araba and it was hoped that would be the key. Mark Goldberg had originally experimented with bringing back Nic McDonnell and Gareth Williams for their third spells with the club, but neither could rediscover the form of 2006/07 when they both notched over 20 in the promotion season and former top scorer Warren McBean’s return was halted by a torn achilies after just two friendlies. 

 The season began with a 0-0 at home to Staines, the lack of goals that blighted the previous campaign still seeming to be a major issue. A 3-0 defeat at Eastbourne the following Tuesday sounded alarm bells among the fans with players fighting each other over taking a penalty which inevitably was missed. Next a 3-2 loss at Chelmsford did see a much improved display with ten men, but the month ended without a win as we drew 1-1 at home to Tonbridge on the Bank Holiday Monday.

The next Saturday saw a 2-0 loss at Farnborough with tempers frayed behind the goal at another season of struggle this time on a much improved budget. Finally the win came with a 4-0 home win over an awful Hornchurch side with the players making a point of celebrating with the manager and blanking the fans. Wins over Bath & Truro lifted the mood and the league position going into the FA Cup.

A couple of league draws followed before Welling came to Hayes Lane for Non League Day. 1,334 watched an abject display from The Ravens with The Wings running out comfortable 2-0 winners. October came to an end with us still in the FA Cup and mid-table losing to league leaders Salisbury 2-1 in injury time before edging Maidenhead 3-2 in front of only 333 at Hayes Lane.

Once again The FA Cup provided some relief with the club reaching the First Round Proper again, impressive wins at Sutton & Dover set up a fourth qualifying round tie at home to Worcester. With a tense and close game looking set for a replay Bromley were reduced to ten men when Moses Swaibu was sent off, but remarkably The Ravens not only held on they snatched a win in the last minute thanks to Richard Pacquette converting a Ali Fusieni cross to spark off joyous scenes on the terraces. The first round draw set us up with a trip to the Lancashire coast to face League Two Fleetwood Town who had one the Conference Premier the previous season. Just over 350 Bromley fans made the trip, but they were denied any romance by a clinical display from The Cod Army scoring three first half goals to win 3-0 at a canter.

The FA Trophy unusually saw us have a good run too, replay wins away from home over Staines & Boreham Wood set up a home tie with Conference Premier promotion hopefuls Kidderminster Harriers. Against the odds Bromley won 1-0 thanks to a Danny Waldren penalty and entered the last sixteen for the first time in the club’s history where they were drawn away to Dartford. A great travelling support made a fantastic atmosphere and pushed the side on against their Conference premier neighbours, eventually losing 4-2 in a thrilling match.

Amid the FA Cup and The Trophy games we played one league game in November a poor home display losing 1-0 to a rugged Billericay. Striker Joe Piggott joined on loan from Charlton and scored in the 2-1 win at Havant & Waterlooville, but two 3-1 defeats to Welling & Farnborough knocked us back before a spell of bad weather over Christmas saw  two games called off. 2012 came to an end with an impressive 3-0 win at Tonbridge in terrible conditions and there was even whispers of the play offs despite the fact a few players were let go or sent out on loan to balance the books. 

2013 got off to the worst possible start with a 2-0 home defeat to Sutton in front of a relatively poor crowd of 556. Then came a great run of league results that saw us beat Eastleigh at home 3-1, Dorchester 4-0 away and Bath 2-0 away. Forwards Louie Theophanous and Elliott Buchanan looking like great signings, but after another interruption for snow we lost 1-0 at home to Weston Super Mare and entered another slump. Great efforts hade been made my the club and fans to get the Weston game on, with the pitch cleared and two sides of the ground opened, but the performance at home was once again lacking.

February saw Bromley go five games with out a win before ending the month with a vital six points beating Billericay 3-2 away with a last minute Danny Waldren penalty and on the Tuesday a surprisingly poor Chelmsford 2-0 at home.

Our Kent Senior Cup campaign fell victim to the perceived chance of making the play offs with MG fielding a squad side that was destroyed in extra time at Tonbridge 6-1 after we had beaten Gillingham Reserves in the previous round. It was the London Senior Cup that would provide a vital source of positivity during the final six weeks of the season. A squad side provided home wins over Harrow & Tooting which then saw us travel to another Ryman League side Wingate & Finchley in the semi’s. This time a near full strength team drew 1-1 after extra time with the Premier Division strugglers, but edged the penalty shootout 4-3 to book a place in the final against Kingstonian.                       

Going into mid-March we still had a realistic chance of making the play offs, but the day before the transfer deadline Ali Fuseini was allowed to join Sutton amid rumours of budget cuts and from that point the team never recovered. A run of eight consecutive league defeats followed, the side were hampered by injuries to key players and a lack of depth in the squad only bolstered by Academy players thrown into a difficult situation. The Easter Monday defeat at second bottom Hornchurch saw tempers boil over. We lost to a poor side who were reduced to ten men before half time and we played with one up front with no urgency at all. The Urchins then nicked the game in the final minute pulling us down into the relegation mire once more. As the manager left the field he was told in no uncertain terms what one supporter in particular felt and as a result MG went to the paper again to criticise the fans and threaten to resign for the third time in the summer. The run of loses eventually ended in the penultimate league game with a win at Boreham Wood, fortunately Billericay & Hornchurch’s inability to win at all meant we were safe before the Conference South campaign ended with a 4-0 home defeat to play off contenders Dover. During the final game a group of fans unfurled a ‘Mark Goldberg Bromley Legend’ banner and following the match at the Player of the Season awards MG made a move to rebuild bridges with supporters during his speech and also in the press.     

Fortunately there was still the London Senior Cup Final to lift the spirits and end the season on a positive note. Kingstonian came into the game at Imber Court on an equally poor run of form, but regardless of this both teams provided a good match to watch with Bromley edging it thanks to two first half goals from Elliott Buchanan & Aaron Rhule and despite being reduced to ten men on the hour when Helge Orome saw red. K’s did grab a goal dead on the final whistle, but The Ravens lifted the cup with Mark Goldberg dedicating the win to the fans.

The season came to an end with Bromley 14th, having reached the first round of the FA Cup, last sixteen of the FA Trophy and won the London Senior Cup. A decent return on paper, but for many it still felt like an under achievement given the increased budget and the flirtations with relegation after Christmas. We go into the summer with a great deal of uncertainty over the future of the club and management, MG had said he will make a decision in June depending of if a take over goes through. Whatever happens hopefully the relationship between club and fans will continue in the good vein they ended the season and the disputes can be put behind us all so we can face the new challenges united.

Players In During the Season:           

Richard Paquette Aug                           

Ian Daly Sept                                        

Elliott Buchanan Oct

Louie Theophanous Oct

Joe Piggott (loan) Nov

Rob Gillman Nov

Harry Harding Nov

Helge Orome Dec

Solomon Taiwo Dec

Ishmael Welsh Jan

Max Noble Feb

Players Out:

Hakeem Araba Sept

George Howard (loan) Nov

Richard Pacquette Dec

Rob Gillman Dec

Harry Harding Dec

Jerrome Sobers Dec

Ian Daly (loan Dec)

Joe Piggott (loan ended) Jan

Michael Malcolm Jan

Ali Chaaban Jan

Solomon Taiwo Feb

Ali Fuseini March 

Col.