Another eventful affair for those who follow The Ravens! This time we got through 44 players, 3 managers and 2 chairmen and finished it off fourth from bottom in the Ryman League Division One.
Before the season began it was revealed that former Bromley player Jerry Dolke was fronting a consortium that wished to take over BFC and lead them on to better things. This was to include a reformed reserve team and a youth structure which had both been scrapped under the previous owners. As is typical with these things the takeover took much longer than expected and even coming into May nothing is completely sorted! Also worth noting was the fact that there was to be no relegation from Division One due to the proposed regionalization of the Ryman League.
After winning two trophies in our first two friendlies against Romford and Herne Bay the start of the season on the pitch fell away under manager Dave Garland. Despite bringing in some good quality players like Kirk Watts and Moses Jjunju the team still looked uninspired, low on confidence and unsure of what tactics they were playing.
Amid rumours of unrest in the Bromley camp long serving striker Mark Tompkins left for Harlow. By mid-September we were back at the bottom of the table without a league win and finally the decision was taken by the outgoing Board to end the Garland era at BFC. Ironically the last game under his command was a 1-3 loss at Home to Harlow and yes Tompkins scored the third goal!
Youth Manager Alan Seamons took the reins and Mark Tompkins returned from Harlow to be his assistant. The performances improved quickly, most notably with two impressive draws - 3-3 at Yeading and 2-2 at Northwood - but a league win was still as elusive as ever and to compound the misery for the club we went out of the FA Cup at Hassocks 2-0, therefore missing out on the big prize money on offer and consequently had to slash the wage bill. The rock-like centre back Dean Forbes and quick forward Charly Side were the two biggest departures, although many more were soon to leave. October saw another low point, when we lost 2-1 at also winless bottom side Windsor & Eton. This left us stranded in the bottom three and seemingly without direction on or off the field.
On October 20th things began to change, Jerry Dolke’s proposed take over of the club looked to be going ahead in some form and former coach Stuart McIntyre took over as team manager. Seamons left the club & Tompkins also went back to Harlow. A 3-0 defeat at Tooting saw us with only 5 points to our name, but things did look better and McIntyre was soon to re-shape the whole playing squad.
The vastly experienced defender Mark Harris joined as Player Coach and proved to be a great leader on the pitch. With the returning Carl Bartley leading the line we held league leaders Bognor 1-1 at The Nest and then finally after four painful months we secured our first 3 points with a 1-0 win over Uxbridge thanks to a Gary Drewett goal. In between these fine results though we did lose 0-1 to Hoddesdon in the London cup!
November also saw a fine League Cup win over Premier side Billericay 2-0 and a spirited 3-1 exit from the Kent Cup away at Conference side Margate. December started with a storming FA Trophy game at home to Tooting, which ended 1-1, sadly we lost the replay 3-1 to the stronger team, but optimism was returning to The Ravens and the players seemed to finally have the leadership they needed. Four days later saw the best performance since the McIntyre reign began when Walton & Hersham were defeated 4-2 at Stompond Road.
Things went a little shaky heading into the festive period with four consecutive defeats including a humiliating 5-3 drubbing at rivals Dulwich Hamlet and a 1-0 defeat in the League Cup by Corinthian Casuals. Fortunately the New Year got off to a better start with a 1-0 win at Harlow, whose side included former Bromley favourites Ian Ralwings, Dave Gray and of course Mark Tompkins!
Matters off the pitch took over the main concerns for Bromley fans from then on - it was revealed in the local paper that Jerry Dolke had not yet been sold all the shares promised to him when his consortium took over. Although he was prepared to carry on for now, he hoped that the situation would soon be sorted.
Good wins over Oxford City and Walton at The Nest sandwiched a great 1-1 draw at leaders Ford United on one of the worst pitches seen in a long time, but the next two games saw us go down at Thame 4-1 and 3-1 at Aylesbury, both times we lead 1-0 only to capitulate in a matter of minutes on the hour mark! And so the season went on with runs of disappointing defeats interspersed with creditable wins over better placed opposition. The highlight for most Bromley fans was the 1-0 win over Dulwich on Easter Monday, the goal scored by debutant Billy Manuel, but a 3-2 win at Worthing is also worth a mention. A month earlier we had been 2-0 up at half time only for the game to be abandoned due to heavy rain. This time we were 3-0 up at the break and in much fairer weather we narrowly held on in the second half. Kwabena Amaning scored 2 mins into his first start, with Harris and Bartley also scoring nice goals.
After initially threatening to quit the club in early April over the unsold shares Dolke finally pledge his future to BFC and said he wanted to take the club on to great things along with McIntyre in charge of the team. There was even talk of a planned promotion push for 2002/03!
The season finished with a 3-2 win over Barking which left us fourth from bottom with 41 points from 42 games and much hope for next season. Kirk Watts, Danny Harwood, Carl Bartley, Gary Drewett, Mark Harris and Dean Frost all look to be on their way to legendary status and Dean Thomas could still prove to be a fine signing if he can fulfil all that potential. Billy Manuel & Gavin McGowan will also add some valuable experience to the next campaign.
There were moments of anger, despair, joy and laughter throughout the season and as usual with Bromley FC it was rarely predictable and rarely dull.
I’ll be back for more...
-- Col.