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Guide to Bromley
at 12:12 19 Jul 2025

With Town being drawn against League Two Bromley in the League Cup in what will be the first ever match between the sides I thought I would give a quick bit of info about the local area for those fans coming down.

Getting here

Driving, the Dartford Crossing is always a bit snarly but coming across from Essex into Kent generally goes more smoothly than the return leg through the tunnel. Come off on the A21 junction which is junction 4. The roads near to the ground can all pretty much be parked in with some restrictions on those a bit closer to Bromley Town Centre and Bromley South train station.

Train. Into Liverpool Street and then loads of options to get here. Aim for Bromley South Station not Bromley North or Hayes (these are both on a slow line out of London Bridge, Bromley South on a fast train is only 15-20 mins out of Victoria. On the tubes if its a baking hot day the tube is awful but the Circle Line round to Victoria from Liverpool Street is often noticeably cooler but takes about 10 minutes longer plus once on there are no changes. Alternatively you can get to Victoria on the Metropolitan, Hammersmith & City plus the Circle going the other way to Kings Cross change on the Victoria line and head south to Victoria. Alternatively Central line to Oxford Circus and change on to the Victoria line. Once at Victoria, there a few pubs near Victoria station two Spoons and an expensive Sports bar across from the station plus Supermarkets for a carry out to keep topped up on the short journey to Bromley South. At Victoria avoid the stopping trains and get on a fast train to Kent and the first stop on those will be Bromley South, there is a big clear departures info board and the fast trains are usually those to Ashford, Dover Rochester and Gillingham.

The Bromley Ground is a short walk from Bromley South train station and there are plenty of pubs in Bromley.

There is a biggish spoons across from the Station its far from the best and its in the bottom of an office block but its a straightforward Spoons. There is a Nando's behind the pub. Alternatively there a pubs 5 minutes into the town centre that are much better these are found on two roads the High Street and East Street. On the High Street you have the second Spoons, The Star and Garter which is really good lots of interesting beers The Barrel and Horn quite trendy, The Artful Duke which is a bit of a sports bar The Patridge which is a Fullers Pub not much of an atmosphere. On East Street you have quite a few different restaurants mostly chains an O'Neils and the Railway Pub.

Closer to the ground you have the Bricklayers Arms and the Cork and Cask. Bricklayers Arms recently done up sells food, Cork and Cask tiny micro bar. A little bit further on you have the Hit or Miss on Chatterton Road a small neighbourhood bar which sells good beer and is very welcoming. All of these pubs accept away fans.

At the ground there is an entire stand which is being redeveloped which restricts the capacity of an already small ground. Not sure what the Bromley allocation of tickets will be for Town but would have thought 500 - 700. There is a bar at the ground but this will be for home fans only the redeveloped stand will hopefully in the future improve facilities for away fans but on the whole the provision for away fans at Bromley has been pretty poor but the club were non League until last season with the current league two standing being the highest in the clubs history.

The sides have not played each other previously. Luke Wolfenden was on loan here a few years ago, Omar Sowunmi a giant of a centre back for Bromley used to be an Ipswich youth player. New signing for Bromley and the games pantomime villan Will Hondermarck was at Norwich but did not make an appearance for the Budgies.

[Post edited 19 Jul 15:13]

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The season gone and the season to come
at 13:20 15 Jun 2025

I think it is possible to believe that the club is in a much better state under the new owners, note the progress made and still be critical of the performances last season and also be concerned about some of the decision making both on and off the pitch. A few not particularly well structured thoughts and apologies for the rambling.

Last season exposed a weakness in McKenna for not being able to set up the team to see out games and there seems to be a pattern of bringing on substitutes far too late. Whilst it is great to have a manager in demand last season we lost the advantage of automatic promotion as the club set about keeping the manager and this put back work on transfers. KMcK has been great for this club and I am sure last season will have been a massively steep learning curve and I hope he is here to stay for some seasons yet. I don't think he will go to Brentford as I think Brentford put their very successful system above everything including the manager and this limits the role and scope of decision making of whomever has that role at the club. I think KMcK would want a club where he has much more control and also I think it would be very difficult to kick Brentford on to the next level after the excellent tenure of Thomas Frank.

I think recent transfer windows have shown how far the scouting and analysis departments at the club were decimated under the previous owner and the work to improve them is going to take a very long time. Once we lost access to Tony Blooms magic spreadsheet our more recent signings on the whole have not had the impact of the windows before but then the level the club is at has increased significantly so it is a harder task. This upcoming window is going to one of the most challenging with comings and goings. Cajuste is a player that was fantastic last season but I do worry about his failed Brentford medical and his managed game time with us suggests that there is an underlying problem there and will be able to play the long hard winter months of Saturday- Tuesday Championship football I hope so as he would be an immense signing. I also hope we can ship off players such as Jack Clarke (I meant Harry apologies) who is simply out of his depth at the top end of the Championship let alone the Premier League.Also I was always worried about the quality of Slicker simply based on what you see when the squad warm up for games and his recent performance for Scotland is further cause for concern. Again is this an indicator of poor off field work as I understand the goal keeping analysis was outsourced. Ali Al-Hamidi looked like he had won a competition to be a footballer, he is not quite at the level of performance Best and Reo-Coker turned in for us but he is definitely a player we should look to move on. Off the field I think the chief operating officer Luke Werhun needs replacing and I would like to see a director in place with more experience something lacking since Mike O'Leary left

More generally I worry about the American ownership in the longterm. So far there have been huge levels of investment but a pension fund will want a significant return on that spending and I am not sure of what their exit strategy is. I suppose you have to judge them on their actions so far which have been excellent but I do have this worry in the background but maybe that is unfair.

Overall though if I look back to the club five years ago we are in a great place the work to become a category 1 academy and the new training ground are really positive and hopefully will be great assets for the future of the club. It is exciting to be thinking about players we might be signing rather than scrambling around in the bargain bin of windows long past. Central midfield, right back and an additional striker should be the focus. Morsy has been a great player and captain but the legs are going.

[Post edited 19 Jul 11:42]

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