A mad night in Essex that saw referee Crouch take all the headlines with his diabolical display of officiating that left the Ravens playing the last 10 mins of the game with 8 men against Ford’s 10! Heroically Bromley held on to their slender lead with the odds stacked up against them and secured a well deserved piece of silverware for Stuart McIntyre and his players.
First talking point of the night was the decision of Dagenham to open less than half of the ground, which saw us penned into one terrace behind the goal for the whole game! It’s a good job Ford had no fans, as it could have kicked off later on when the ref went mad in the second half. The other piece of pre-match bad news was that Wade Falana had aggravated his thigh injury in the warm up and would not be able to take part.
With the HLO’s in good voice and all the flags out on show Bromley were lifted from the kick off and matched their opponents from a higher division. With the game evenly balanced a piece of Kirk Watts brilliance broke the deadlock on 21 mins. Kirk picked the ball up on the left and cut into the box before lashing his shot across Wilson and into the far corner of the net. The roar was deafening! Going into the half both sides had periods of dominance, but there were no more goals. Harwood and Vines were both in great form at the back and Drewett and Watts both tormented the Ford defence, The Motormen’s main threat was the pacey Mervyn Abraham.
The second half was all about the referee Mr Crouch, from New Eltham of all places! I checked with people who were more neutral watching the game and they confirmed my suspicion that he was heavily favouring the Premier Division side and the Ravens were getting a raw deal. Ford had the better of the possession throughout the half, but Bromley held strong and kept then outside of the box. In fact there were only about three shots in total during the game - Danny saved two and Kirk scored with the other! Grant Watts came on for the injured Bobby George who had run all game. With tension high, on 85 mins came the flash point, Danny Smith crashed into the back of a Ford defender and this sparked off a 22 man brawl that went on for some time. Once it had calmed down somehow ref Crouch saw fit to send off Danny Smith (for the tackle?), John Myatt (for dissent?) & Colin Luckett (for what I have no idea!). Remarkably he only ordered off Hallie from the local side! With the shock still washing over the crowd, and John X leading the charge round to tell the Ref his mistake, Macca showed the foresight to quickly bring on Mark Harris for Kirk Watts and strengthen up the defence. Adolph Amoako was left up front on his own and chased anything that was cleared away. The main opinion behind the goal was that ref Crouch would award Ford a penalty and effectively hand then the game at the slightest touch by a Bromley player in the box. Luckily the Ravens defence was to good to fall into the trap and held out for the 5 mins injury time to win the trophy against all the odds. The celebrations at the end were even sweeter for the fact, although I was almost too exhausted to fully enjoy them.
Quote for the game: ‘Shit cars, no fans!’
Team: Harwood, Smith, Luckett, Vines, McKoy, Luckett, Drewett, Myatt, George, Amoako, K Watts.
Subs: Harris, G Watts, Amaning, Wilfort, Manuel.