Well where do you start about this season just gone? Over 50 players wore the black and white and 5 managers took control of the team, before we eventually came up two places short of the league placing that would have seen us make the new Isthmian Premier Division and one place shy of the playoff spot.
Way back in August things looked good for BFC. Confidence and optimism were high and manager Stuart McIntyre had added one or two good players to the squad that had finished sixth in the Ryman Div One South and won the London Senior Cup. Dean Forbes had returned from Tooting, Tony Reid had come in from Lewes and Mark Willy joined from Cray. All the fans knew that if we repeated the same feat again in the league, we’d be set for a strange form of ‘promotion’ to the same level of football we now played at, thanks to the FA’s restructuring of Non-League football. After a whole host of pre-season friendlies we came into our final warm up game at Romford in the Wembley Cup. Worryingly for the few Bromley fans present, there were 25 players in the Bromley squad and most of them featured. Only 4 days ahead of the first league game Macca appeared totally unsure of his strongest team! We won the cup 2-1 if any one cares...
So came the first league game on a very hot day away to Croydon. We scraped a 1-0 win thanks to David Smith’s second half goal, but the main talking point was seeing Bromley playing in black and white stripes rather than the white shirts favoured for the last 11 years. The following Tuesday we played at home to title favourites Lewes and all the doubts resurfaced about Bromley’s character when we threw away a 1-0 lead and lost 2-1. After dominating the first half we failed to make our chances count and were bulldozered in the second half. The roller coaster ride had begun yet again...
We trashed Molesey 4-0 at home, got a disappointing draw at Ashford Middx and knocked North Leigh out of the FA Cup before the fans received a massive shock the day before the home game with Walton and Hersham. The popular and quite simply brilliant wing wizard Kirk Watts was released by Macca and the pathetic Bobby Nolan brought in to replace him. Calls for Macca’s head had already began before the kick off of the Walton game and in a turgid display the Ravens lost 3-0 at home as the Hayes Lane Ultras behind the goal sang Kirk’s name. The disquiet continued as we went down 1-0 at Windsor, with no width at all in the side and despair replaced optimism for the season.
Macca stated his intention to be more rugged as a team and we certainly lived up to the billing away to Ashford Town in the FA Cup where we kicked our way to a 1-1 draw with new signing Leroy Huggins netting for us. Joe Wade’s free kick won us the replay and set us up with a cup derby at home to Dartford. I for one was eating humble pie about Macca’s new vision for BFC when we went on to beat both Casuals and Tooting 1-0 in the league. Then came a great day at Hayes Lane when 542 showed up to see us completely out class Dartford in the FA Cup and run out 3-0 winners. Young striker Adolph Amoako looking real class up front with either Reid or Huggins and the defence marshalled by Forbes, Joe Vines and Willy, while Paul Kember ran the midfield. Another 1-0 win at Bracknell came ahead of a Kent Cup win over Dartford - 3-2 this time and only 179 there to see it! In the FA Cup Ryman Premier side Thurrock (the artist formerly known as Purfleet) came to Hayes Lane and this proved to be another great day of cup football. After going down to tem men early on and falling behind, Leroy Huggins smashed in a last minute equaliser to sent the benches end mental and grab a replay. Sadly the following Monday saw an injury and suspension ravaged side go out 3-0 and never really threaten the home goal.
Four days later we picked ourselves up and with an amazing 20 minute spell in the second half, we thrashed Leatherhead 5-0 away, Paul Vines scoring on his debut. All looked rosy in the camp ahead of a Tuesday night home game with Banstead and then it all started to go wrong! A poor 1-1 draw with the Surrey side after dominating the match saw fans and board members questioning the manager’s decisions, but no one expected that only a day later Stuart McIntyre would quit the job and say goodbye to BFC. Captain Dean Forbes posted up on the fans forum as "?" to criticise the fans and tell us we were a joke.
So, in late October with the team just outside the top six 32 year old Assistant Manager Eddie Saunders took over as caretaker manager. His first game was a good 2-0 win over Hampton followed by a solid display in a 3-1 defeat at Carshalton in the FA trophy. We beat Staines 2-1 before the wheels started to come off just as Eddie was given the managers post on a ‘permanent’ basis. We lost 2-1 at an impressive Worthing, 4-2 at Slough and then only drew 1-1 at home to Met Police. We exited the Bryco Cup 2-0 at Harrow and then with new assistant Curtis Warmington on board we lost at home to Egham before the final embarrassment came at basement boys Epsom and Ewell, where we were lucky to hold on to a 1-1 draw! Warmington had already released Huggins before then sacking popular keeper Danny Harwood after the disaster in derby country. With the club in lower mid table Chairman Jerry Dolke acted quickly and sacked both Saunders and Warmington.
So December saw us travel to Horsham on a Tuesday night in the fog and find Jerry Dolke and John Myatt in charge of a team that included former cult hero Wade Falana up front. With the score at 1-0 to Horsham Wade came on and within minutes had helped create both goals for Amokao as we ran out 2-1 winners. We beat Croydon at home the next Saturday in a game with a great atmosphere created by the HLU behind the goal. Optimism was creeping back into the fans, but we fell 2-0 at home to Marlow in a reality check Chairman Dolke once again acted swiftly and former Tonbridge Angels manager Alan Walker came in as manager assisted by Lloyd Hume.
Walker released Tony Reid, Jason Mckoy and sent Dean Forbes out on loan, while Joe Vines left for Crawley. In came former Tonbridge men Overton, Tyedman and Larkin. After a ten day beak for bad weather we drew 2-2 at home to Dulwich in Walkers first game. This was a fantastic match and saw Falana net once again for the Ravens. New Year came with a come from behind win at Molesey 2-1 and then we stuttered in a 1-1 draw at Whyteleafe that saw us skip further down the table and the start of some splits in the players camp. Lloyd Hume was sacked by Jerry for ‘unacceptable behaviour’ and only 4 days later following a pathetic 1-3 defeat at home to Horsham, Walker parted company with the club. The majority of the playing staff refused to ever play for him again and with the team only in mid-table the fans were also on his back, leading to Jerry to show Walker the door.
Bad weather led to the Tonbridge Kent Cup game being called off the following Tuesday but by the time we took the field at Banstead the next Saturday Stuart McIntyre had been restored as Bromley manager. After lengthy clear the air talks with Dolke he had agreed to return and try and lead us into the top six. We started with a great display of attacking football and a 2-1 win on the Epsom Downs quickly followed by wins over Leatherhead and Tonbridge in the Kent Cup. We barely even defended the London Senior Cup as we fell 1-0 to local rivals Dulwich, but all eyes were on the top six and not many fans seemed to mind as much as I did! We won our next league game at Met Police 3-1, but then got destroyed 4-0 at home to an excellent Slough side. A creditable 0-0 with Worthing did little to help the league position, but with Mark Harris covering as boss, we really turned it on at Hampton and ran out 3-1 winners with new signing Kevin George running the midfield. Two disappointing home draws with Croydon Athletic and Whytleafe seemed to have all but ruled out a place in the Premier Division for us, but then we grab a bit of hope with a 2-0 win at Croydon Athletic putting in a fine display. It was about this time that fans started to point out how poor our home form was especially on Tuesdays!
We slipped to mid-table with a 4-3 defeat at Tooting and a 3-1 trouncing at Staines. Dean Forbes went missing for the final time after barely playing since the Saunders debacle. Corinthian Casuals were eventually beaten 3-0 at home, before, despite playing really well we lost 3-1 at Lewes. With Kirk Watts and Joe Vines playing for them, they would go on to be worthy champions. Macca held a fans forum that week and among other things said releasing Kirk Watts was a mistake. Folkestone Invicta destroyed us 5-0 at Hayes Lane (on a Tuesday) to put us out of the Kent Senior Cup Semi Final. Kevin George joined Lincoln City, but in the same week we were boosted by the signing of striker Mark Watson who led the line brilliantly on his debit in a 4-0 win over Bracknell. Once again as we looked set to make a final play for the top six we slipped and threw away a two goal lead twice to draw 3-3 at Walton and hurt’em, who were close to the dirtiest team I have ever seen! A 4-1 win at Egham lifted everybody. If we could win our last few games then ‘promotion’ was still an outside possibility, but on a grey day under a sky the colour of concrete we capitulated to Ashford Town Middx and despite a late rally lost 2-3. It really was all over and Bromley would be playing at the lowest ever level of football in our history.
As if to almost rub salt in the wound we picked ourselves up and hammered local rivals Dulwich Hamlet 4-0 at Champion Hill with a breath taking goal from Landry Zahan-Oni, two from Mark Watson and one from a Colin Luckett corner.
Title chasing Windsor & Eton containing Tony Reid and Chuck Martini fell to us 1-0 at home and a week later we ran round Epsom in a 2-0 win on our final home game. Many of us were left feeling that we should have made it comfortably and wondering why we couldn’t play like that against sides more often. The final game of the season was a poor 1-0 loss at Marlow. By this time Adolph Amoako had quite rightly been named supporters player of the season - 26 goals from a 20 year old is some achievement - and the superb Mark Willy players player of the season.
So there we are another season of ‘if onlys’ and ‘maybes’ that saw us finish eighth in a pretty poor league, but all but one of the teams above us operated on much bigger budgets and had been a lot more stable during the season!
-- Col.