Le Bien, Le Mal

Colin Head takes us on a walk down memory lane

Heading into the 2022/23 season, Bromley are preparing for their seventh consecutive National League campaign. That in itself is something worth celebrating. If you’d told me twenty years ago that this would be the case, I would’ve questioned your sanity.

Back in 2002, we were preparing for our fourth season in Division One of the Ryman League. But, for the first time in years, there was a sense of optimism that things were starting to improve and that we might even challenge for promotion back to the Ryman Premier.

Jerry Dolke had taken over as owner in 2001 and manager Stuart McIntyre had assembled a squad with a decent mixture of youth and experience. Danny Harwood and Chuck Martini were battling it out for the number one slot, veteran Mark Harris was at the back alongside a young Joe Vines, teenage talisman Adolph Amoako was leading the line with Wade Falana, and the wicked wing wizard Kirk Watts was tearing it up out wide.     

Although promotion would prove to be a bridge too far that season, the team did win the London Senior Cup, our first trophy since 1997, with a 1-0 win over Ford United. This was the beginning of the rise to where we find ourselves today. 

Twenty years later, Bromley are in non-league football’s top flight and boast an average attendance of roughly 2,000 punters per league game; ten times the average attendance in 2002. Hayes Lane is in a much better state of repair, our squad is composed of established National League and Football League players, and, to top it all, we’re the current FA Trophy holders.     

However, as the Notorious B.I.G. puts it, “Mo Money Mo Problems.” Progress has come at a cost.

In 2002, home and away shirts were available in the club shop, you didn’t need a membership to drink in the Ravens Bar, you could pay on the gate, and season tickets could be bought in-person or by post and collected from the club. No Ticketmaster debacle, no malfunctioning scanners on match days, and you could visit the tea bar without missing a good chunk of the game.

Of course, match days were much easier to organise with crowds of 200. Bromley are no longer a one-bar club playing at home once or twice a week, they’re a huge multifaceted local business. The organisation and staffing alone must be a logistical nightmare.

As the club grows, it is perhaps inevitable that a disconnect has emerged between the fans and the club. Recently, attempts have been made to rectify this: the formation of the Bromley Supporters’ Board is a prime example. The club have also named a tea bar after Dave Roberts, the club shop after Jim Brown, named stands for Glynn Beverly and John Fiorini, and they’ve added club legends George Wakeling and Jack Holland to the staff. 

This is more than a nod to Bromley’s past, but when you walked into the Ravens Bar in 2002, you were greeted by walls covered in shirts, programmes, and photos from yesteryear, all of which are now sadly gone; either sold-off or thrown in a skip. Perhaps, if we could locate some of them and find somewhere to commemorate the club’s history prior to 2015, it might go some way to solving the sense of detachment.

Over time, the logistics of tickets, merchandise, bars, and catering will be solved. For some fans, that’s all they’ll need to see. But, for others, the words of Maya Angelou will ring true: “If you don't know where you've come from, you don't know where you're going.”    

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