AWAY THE GAS – BROMLEY
BY DARREN STOBBS
Ahead of our trip to Bromley confidence was low amongst many of us, but maybe a cup match was what everyone at Rovers needed to try and get back on track from the recent poor form.
We left The Mem just after 8:30am and took a 45 minute break at Cobham Services for the second time in a week, after Crawley last week.
A Leeds United minibus was parked next to us with a good amount of friendly banter going back and forth. Asking some of our fans what we expected, most were saying ‘not a lot from this game really’, they were convinced and decided they were to put a Bromley win on their football coupon!
We arrived at Bromley’s ground at 12:25pm, firstly heading to their club shop. It’s always interesting to find out what other clubs sell differently to our stadium shop and our supporters club shop. They had a handmade model of their ground on display (see photo) which was cleverly put together, not for sale.
We asked if they had any pennants in stock, the two young members of staff look baffled at what we were asking for. Turning away to have a look around myself, I did have a laugh to myself but didn’t want to embarrass them!
After that failure we headed for the local pub, which was just over a 10 minute walk away called ‘The Bricklayer’s Arms’. An old pub which has not long had a complete makeover by the looks of things, it was a very good venue, with plenty of room and was largely filled with Rovers supporters. At £5.55p for a real ale, I was expecting to pay more at ‘London Prices’.
Approaching Bromley’s ground, it has a real non league feel to it. On entering the ground, the friendly stewards were asking the Rovers fans of their expectations and again, confidence sounded low!
A small marque type shelter was positioned for the sale of chips and burgers, with no other hot food options. Opting for the French fries style chips at £4, they weren’t the best.
Portable toilets were on hand and the away facilities felt somewhat unfinished. This was also the case with the temporary covered small stand behind the goal. The covered standing option on the side looked to be a good option and was a decent improvement to the old open terracing when we played them in an FA Cup match six years ago.
On to the match and from the start it was a much better performance throughout, and the effort, determination and intensity was spot on.
The first half was goalless with plenty of decent play but with few chances for either team.
However, the second half was really high press from both teams and end to end, turning it into a real cup tie. The atmosphere inside the ground was certainly a lively one with the Bromley fans situated very close and some interesting exchanges to be heard!
We took the lead when a cross from the right by Luke Thomas was met by Fabrizio Cavegn to head in from close range. It was 2-0 soon after when a low cross from
the left by Cavegn was met by Joel Cotterill at the back post to put the ball into the net.
We started to sit back from the restart, and we let a goal in soon afterwards when a cross was headed in at the far post. Southwood also had to pull off three great saves during the second half. Bromley piled the pressure on late in the game and thought they had an equaliser when they had a goal ruled out for offside. The linesman made a number of offside calls in Rovers favour, to the calls of ‘Linesman is a Gashead!’ from the travelling Rovers fans.
In recent matches it was hard to give a Man of the Match, but at Bromley it could have been given to a number of players. I had a shortlist down to four players but gave it to Stephan Negru in defence. Shaq Forde looked great going forwards and was a good candidate, had he played the whole game. The vote on the supporters club coach was Luke Southwood.
Attendance: 2,500 with around 400 Rovers fans (not confirmed).
The confusion of police directions after the game meant they were reluctant to let us head to our coach, but in the end let us through.
There was a local Domino’s pizza car in front of our coach, which apparently had £250 worth of pizzas ordered for our coach, but not to our knowledge! I said to the steward we were more than happy to take them on board and that they were getting cold!
I even thought that maybe our owners had ordered them for us – wishful thinking, I guess!
It was found out that he was at the wrong sports ground in the area, so we missed out!
We left Bromley at 5:20pm and stopped for 20 minutes at Reading Services on the way back to The Mem, arriving home at 8:50pm.
Now on to the FA Cup draw, which amongst some friends we jokingly said it will probably be somewhere like Peterborough away, where we have been many times before with not a great away record.
