Aiming for full league status, Bromley FC are also looking to fill Hayes Lane for the vital run-in
Hot on the heels of Bromley’s stoppage-time comeback to beat runaway National League leaders Chesterfield 4-3 on Saturday, the Ravens host Dagenham & Redbridge at Hayes Lane on Tuesday, February 20.
Twenty points behind the champions elect, Bromley are now in the box seat for a semi-final slot in the play-offs. If the Ravens follow Wrexham and achieve league status this spring, it will give London another representative in The 92 – although Bromley would almost certainly be replacing doomed Sutton, the club’s near neighbours in these southern fringes of the capital.
Until recently, Bromley was best known for its musical connections, the sundry Banshees who followed the Pistols and David Bowie’s schooldays. A recent feel-good feature film set between the two eras, The Bromley Boys, captures what it was like following the Ravens in the lower reaches of the Isthmian League.
But now the club is going places. Winners of the FA Trophy at Wembley in 2022, the showcase fixture with their upwardly mobile Welsh opponents featured on the Welcome to Wrexham docuseries, Bromley have big plans of their own.
This January, ambitious owner/chairman, Bromley-born Robin Stanton-Gleaves, launched Project 30,000 to attract that number of fans to 5,150-capacity Hayes Lane during the season run-in. With nearly 4,000 squeezed in last Saturday, Bromley should hit the target, but the 4-4-2 offer – four matches for the price of two – is part of a wider initiative.
As outlined by the locally education business owner, “Bromley is defined by its entrepreneurship, education, green spaces, sport and most importantly, its thriving community… League football and the uplift in media coverage will help the club take its already strong community work and spotlight to a new level”.
With no Hollywood backing – in fact, on a modest budget – Stanton-Gleaves needs to have the right people around him. Manager Andy Woodman, a former Brentford goalkeeper, learned his football with Gareth Southgate as a youth at Crystal Palace, while assistant manager Alan Dunne is a Millwall legend who saw out his playing career at Hayes Lane.
The team, which already pushed Chesterfield close in the play-off semi-final in 2023, a ten-man endeavour stretching into extra-time and a 3-2 defeat, has surpassed itself in 2023-24. Prolific striker Michael Cheek, a former Dag & Red man, hasn’t lost the knack of scoring vital goals. The man who hit the winner against Wrexham at Wembley and the 99th-minute (!) equaliser at Chesterfield in the 2023 play-off, claimed a hat-trick in Saturday’s ding-dong battle with the Spireites, his 86th-minute goal levelling the scores at 3-3.
Teammates include former Bromley U-18 forward Ben Krauhaus, an ever-present this season at 19 years old, and his fellow academy product Jude Arthurs, a midfield mainstay at 22.
The academy, with seven boys’ and girls’ teams, was already in place when Stanton-Gleaves arrived in 2019, but is now attached to an extensive educational operation offering BTECs and diplomas in higher education. Everything takes place on-site, where players can take advantage of a top-of-the-range gym, even a yoga lounge.
Opened just before the war by Stanley Rous, the later FIFA president, Hayes Lane has been improved step by step in recent years, the home South Stand named after former club president Glyn Beverly when it opened in 2019. Away fans standing on the open East Terrace, aka Cricket Club Side, should be treated to a roof at some point in the not too distant future, with planning permission already confirmed.
Packed on opening day in 2022 when Bromley hosted York in the FA Trophy semi-final, Broomfields bar & restaurant now operates seven days a week. Players walk through it on their way to the dressing room in the build-up to kick-off. Fans can also upgrade their ticket by £5 to gain access to the Ravens Lounge, with a perfect view of the action.
If accession to the Football League happens – and with games to come against Oldham and Barnet, nothing is guaranteed – then almost everything will be in place for Bromley to join Wrexham in the Football League. The club will still have to replace its artificial 3G surface with turf, a grass pitch next door coming in handy for when the time comes.
Come to think of it, if the likes of Charlton and AFC Wimbledon share the same divisional status as Bromley in 2024-25, a target of 30,000 spectators over a half a season would be very modest indeed.
Bromley FC v Dagenham & Redbridge, Tuesday, February 20, 8.45pm. Hayes Lane, Bromley BR2 9EF. Train to Bromley South, then bus 314 for 3 stops/5mins to Hayes Road/Hayes Lane. Alternatively, from the station, walk up High Street, turn right into Westmoreland Road, then left into Hayes Lane – allow 15-20mins. Tickets £20 in advance, £22 from midnight before kick-off, seniors £15/£17, under-16s £7/£9, under-11s free with paying adult. Buy online here.
