Bromley FC – End of Season Review 2008/09
Season 2008/09 was once again an eventful affair at Hayes Lane, often more for the goings on off the field than on it, but by the end of it the regulars at Hayes Lane were very happy with the efforts of the young squad which comfortably secured Blue Square South status and played some nice stuff on the way.
The season began with great expectations once again and the pre-season games had promised much with new high profile players Adrian Toppin, Karl Murray, Louis Fazackerley, Warren McBean & Rob Gillman adding to the existing squad, but on the opening day Maidenhead United came to Hayes Lane and comfortably left with all three points winning 2-1. Three days later we scrapped a point at Bishops Stortford and the realisation among the fans was that this was going to be a struggle. A fantastic Louis Fazackerley free kick saw us win at Havant & Waterlooville and lift the mood followed by a 5-1 thrashing of Eastleigh, but then with injuries starting to mount up we lost at Wimbledon and again failed to perform at home losing to 2-0 Worcester City.
September was to see results take a further dip with only one win at home to Weston- Super-Mare, we also exited the Setanta Shield at Bishops Stortford and more disastrously the FA Cup losing 1-0 to AFC Hornchurch losing the club much need income with the worst showing from a Bromley team so far this season. The fall out from this result shaped the rest of the season and began a series of budget cuts and departures of senior players. With owner Jerry Dolke & Manager Mark Goldberg deciding to go with youth and enthusiasm instead of throwing more money at the problem.
Danny Hockton was the first player to leave soon followed by Adrian Toppin, Steve Clark and Adam Everitt as October saw us record one remarkable 1-0 win at Chelmsford, but also lose three times and only draw at struggling Bognor Regis Town. Karl Murray & Jay May went out on loan before eventually leaving and we were knocked out of the London Senior Cup by Hendon on penalties after leading 2-0 with six minutes to go in normal time! Louis Fazackerley joined Welling and Donal O’Sullivan also left.
November began with another home defeat to St Albans City before we recorded three excellent wins in a row to lift relegation worries two of tem at Twerton Park. 3-1 away to Bath City & 3-0 against Team Bath at the same venue a week later followed with a midweek home win over Hayes & Yeading. The young players brought in to replace the bigger names stepped up and gave their all and Warren McBean started to find the net regularly, but they still didn’t quite have enough to keep us in the FA Trophy where we fell at the first time of asking again 1-0 away to Swindon Supermarine.
December was a month of two halves, we won comfortably at Fisher Athletic and knocked Dartford out of the Kent Senior Cup, but then got out classed at Maidenhead and at home to Welling losing 4-1 and 1-3 where our young lads were exposed by two very impressive sides on much bigger budgets.
2009 began with another trouncing at the hands of Welling by the same score line at Park View Road with Louis Fazackerley inevitably scoring. Nic McDonell left the club citing many reasons such as the new style of play and saying he was taking a break from the game. A decent run of three games saw us draw with Havant thanks to a late goal, beat St Albans 5-4 in an incredible game at Clarence Park and then edge out Dorchester 1-0 at home, but this was followed up by three defeats. Moses Swaibu joined Lincoln City under a bit of a cloud, but he did go on to be a regular starter in the League Two side.
After a beak for snow February saw us progress to the semi final of the Kent Senior Cup with a 2-0 win at Maidstone and we picked up seven league points from nine to put a gap between us and the bottom three.
March began with another win over Fisher, but then we once again stuttered and losing 4-1 at home to Braintree with Hockton scoring twice and 2-1 at West-Super-Mare. With a win over Stortford and a draw against Bath we went into the Kent Senior Cup Semi Final hoping for a strong performance and setting up a cup final for the end of the season, but Whitstable gave us a lesson in hard work and desire going 3-2 up in 20minutes and then hanging on to win 3-2 and effectively end our season.
April saw defeats at Hayes & Eastleigh with one or two players seemingly already on holiday before we grabbed the headlines with a 2-2 draw at home to AFC Wimbledon thanks to a spectacular, but controversial late 40yard lob by Ryan Hall. We won our last home game of the season against the doomed Team Bath 4-0 before going down to Dorchester on the last day and losing 2-1 after taking a first minute lead thanks to a Warren McBean penalty his 21st goal of the season.
Rob Gillman won the Supporters & Committee Player of the Season awards with Ryan Hall picking up the manager Mark Goldberg’s vote. Young Keeper Gareth Williams amazingly played every minute of every game even when obviously carrying an injury and 17 year old Harry Harding proved to be a valuable first team player after stepping up from the Youth set up. The young collection of players who came in after the Autumn cuts never quite found the consistency to mount a play off challenge, but they did make sure we were never under any real threat of relegation and showed up the expensive flops of the summer by always giving 100%.
Col.
11th May 2009.
