Bromley are surprise leaders at the top of the table, leading high spending Eastleigh by 11 points (although Eastleigh have 4 games in hand) and travelled to Somerset on the back of 6 away wins.
Unsurprisingly given their lofty position, there was a good away following on Saturday, and they brought a decent array of flags and helped get to a bumper crowd of 755, however, and with the benefit of hindsight this was a forewarning of what their team would be like, on entering the ground I walked through a group of Bromley fans, as one of them piped up “and number 1, is a cunt, and number 1 is a cunt, and number 1 is a cunt” to the tune of Yellow Submarine, all aimed at Jason Mellor in the City goal. While I am someone who is no stranger to swearing, that seemed unnecessarily crude, and completely unwarranted given the game hadn’t started, so why the abuse of a keeper who couldn’t yet have done anything to annoy him?
Neither side started particularly well, but one thing was clear, that Bromley’s giant number 5 and captain was awful. Time and time again the ball cannoned off his legs, passes went array and in one memorable moment when attempting a simple back pass he managed to club it out of play for a corner. Sadly, though, being the giant he was, he was very good in the air, and annoyingly the stripes seemed to try and pick him out with high balls, rather than run at him which would have caused him no end of trouble.
Pratt was slipped through one on one, but just as the front man was getting the ball under control to fire a shot at goal, a Bromley defender had brilliantly made up the ground and got the tackle in. Shortly after this on 16 minutes, a freekick was lofted into the box, and a City player allegedly made contact with an attacker who fell to the ground and a soft penalty was awarded. Honestly, from my position I couldn’t see what had happened but the referee indicated it was for a push to a gobsmacked Mark Preece, and Brad Goldberg slotted the ball home to give Bromley the lead.
The Romans rallied at the point, and had a few chances of their own, and it was during one of these scrambles that Adam Connolly attempted an acrobatic volley, the ball struck the arm of a Bromley defender, and another very soft penalty was awarded. At this point Notman muttered “keep the ball down” and the Nostradamus of the footballing world was right to sagely offer that advice, as Ross Stearn fired his penalty high and wide, meaning the wideman has missed the last two penalties we have been awarded.
Shortly after this, the ball was again fed to Stearn who was wide on the left, he cut inside and eventually got a shot away, the ball bobbled around the area, and Noah Keats managed to brilliantly smuggle the ball home with a pirouette and back heeled finish.
Half time came with the score still at 1-1, and City could rightly feel proud of their first half efforts.
The second half began under leaden skies, and the opening of the half matched the greyness off the sky, with very little of note occurring. This changed when City won a corner, Aaron Brown crossed Andy Watkins directed a lovely little flick that was destined for the top corner, before somehow a defender on the line managed to head away under his own bar. Watkins is rapidly becoming the most unlucky striker, as he has played so well, but hasn’t got the goals his play has deserved.
Minutes later City gave away a free kick by the byline, and true to bloody form, Bromley lofted the ball into the box, and as day follows night, a opposition forward attacked the ball heading
home. City concede these goals time and again, and there is the sense of doom whenever a free kick is given in these areas as we’ve all seen it before.
At this point Bromley’s gamesmanship started to grate quite a lot. Whenever a City player went near to them, they were hitting the deck while all screaming at the linesman or referee demanding the man in black and white was punished. The goalkeeper in particular was a massive tart, as he rolled around on a few occasions, each time making a miraculous recovery. The only time the referee did anything about this was when Bromley’s number 4 feigned injury, and the referee made him walk off the pitch, even though he’d refused treatment.
There was one last effort, where a diving header from Keats was again cleared off the line, and you sensed it was not to be City’s day. That was the case, as the whistle blew, at which point the left back celebrated rather too forcefully, earning himself a Popular Side rebuke, despite his realisation and attempted clapping of the fans.
We retired to the Crown, after what was an enjoyable game, that City probably deserved something from, at which point Scottish Bri produced with a flourish, printed song sheets. Yep, PRINTED song sheets, a glorious scene straight from the 1970s was played out, as Bri attempted to teach his song to the stripey hoards, and we hope to give it an airing on Feb 1st against Bishops Stortford. Up the City!
Someone filmed the game as well! See below
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