WWW.BROMLEYFC.COM - MATCH REPORT
BURGESS HILL 3 BROMLEY 2 – LEAGUE 20/11/04
On a bitterly cold and wet day down in Sussex Bromley slipped further away from the play off spots in an entertaining and frustrating game, with the result greatly influenced by a controversial penalty decision and red card.
The first half was a gripping encounter, which helped take the mind off the awful weather, both sides giving everything and really getting stuck in. Walker made a couple of saves for Bromley and Gannon made a good stop from a Luckett free kick, but neither could break the deadlock.
The second half saw the Hillians grab the advantage when on 47 mins Fillery hit a great strike for 1-0. With Luckett off injured and limited resources on the bench Bromley lost their shape and failed to create any real chances. Bennetts had to deputise at left back and Suleymanoglu came into left midfield. The game got bogged down and it looked like that would be it until on 70 mins Huggins broke free in the box and was clearly brought down by Gannon for a penalty, but ref Mr Hoare waved it away despite Leroy having to go off injured. 3 mins later Bromley did manage to get back in the game when Watson and Amoako put the Burgess Hill defence under pressure and Adolph was on hand to scramble the ball home for 1-1. A point would have suited us fine, but it was not to be! Mr Hoare gave a corner when Walker claimed not to have touched the ball and then he made things much worse. The corner was headed goalwards and saved by Walker before hitting Bennetts on the line, to the anger of all the Bromley players the ref gave a penalty for hand ball and sent Scott off. After lengthy arguments and yellow cards for Watson and Kember, Harper tucked away the spot kick and it was 2-1. The Ravens were obviously shaken by this and couldn’t settle for a while. The Hillians had a couple more chances before on 88 mins Harper ran through and finished well for 3-1. With time dying out and the game lost Rose went on a brilliant surging run down the right, cutting the ball back to Watson who hit the ball into the roof of the net for 3-2. It was too late to grab an equaliser and the cold bit in a little more as the realisation came that we had slipped further down the table. We really missed Potterill and just didn’t seem to have any shape in the second half against a strong well organised team.
Quote for the game: ‘Charlton are even boring on the radio!’ – Mash.
Team: Walker, Henriques, Okafor, M Kember, Luckett, Arkwright, Drewett, Rose, Huggins, Amoako, Bennetts.
Subs: Stradwick, Labadie, Suleymanoglu, Watson.