Bromley 1-0 Burgess Hill Town - We made hard work of it, admits Bromley boss Mark Goldberg

BROMLEY  1-0  BURGESS HILL TOWN
The FA Cup with Budweiser Second Qualifying Round
Saturday 28^th September 2013
Stephen McCartney reports from Hayes Lane

BROMLEY manager Mark Goldberg says he was relieved to hear the final whistle after his side scraped past Burgess Hill Town to reach the penultimate qualifying round of The FA Cup.

Bromley, who have reached the First Round on four occasions during the past seven years, went into this Second Qualifying Round tie sitting in second-place in The Skrill South and there appeared to be no gulf in class against a Burgess Hill Town side that arrived in Kent sitting slap bang in the middle of Ryman League Division One South.

Bromley tip-toed into Monday’s draw thanks to nineteen-year-old striker Shamir Mullings’ 20^th minute tap-in.

“We made hard work of it, I’m afraid,” said Goldberg, who celebrated his 50^th birthday on Thursday, by maintaining the club's 100% home record at Hayes Lane after six games.
 
“We had some early chances that we didn’t really take. As the game went on instead of gaining strength and composure we ended up losing the middle of the park. We were rushing things and they were first to second balls and we never really caused too many problems for them.

“If anything, we were on the back foot quite a lot. Although they didn’t really have any clear cut chances, they hit the woodwork from the free-kick and they had just a little bit too much possession for me.

“But look, we won 1-0 and as I said to the guys’ after the game, so many of them being under-par.  It doesn’t really matter in The FA Cup if you win 5-0 or 1-0. It’s all about being in the hat for the next round and we’re in the hat and we’re able to learn from the bad experience today.”

Goldberg made three changes to the side that impressed during their 3-2 home win over Basingstoke Town last weekend, a result that keeps the Kent club a point behind leaders Eastleigh after nine league games.

Steven Smith, Elliott Buchanan and Ben Swallow came in and relegated Danny Waldren, Ashley Nicholls and Brendan Kiernan to the bench.

Bromley created the first opening after only 166 seconds when left-winger Swallow latched onto Joe Anderson’s pass to float over a first time cross and Dean Pooley came up from right-back to send his downward header wide of the near post from inside the six-yard box.

Bromley created another chance when Buchanan clipped the ball forward from the edge of the centre circle and Swallow’s great touch saw him bring the ball down under his spell with his left leg before curling his left-footed shot past the near post from fifteen-yards.

But Burgess Hill tightened up after that before Bromley scored the decisive goal inside 20 minutes.

Jack Holland clipped a ball forward from defence with his right foot which sailed over the head of Hillans’ right-back Neil Watts to release Swallow down the left.

The winger reached the by-line and cut the ball across to Mullings to slide his first time right-footed shot past keeper Alan Mansfield to score his second goal for the club since his move from Southend United.

Goldberg admitted: “It’s the only bit of good football that we played during the whole game really!

“There were little flashes but we asked them to move it quickly.  Instead we thought once we got on the ball to slow the game down which was the opposite that we wanted our team to do.”

Burgess Hill Town almost snatched an equaliser within 135 seconds when midfielder Curtis Gaylor whipped in a free-kick from 40-yards with his right-foot from the left and the ball sailed into the air before bouncing down and then up to bounce off the crossbar.

Goldberg was quick to praise their Ryman League opponents, who would have gained a second bite of the cherry on Wednesday night if they were more adventurous in the final third.

The Bromley boss said :”All credit to them. They were a well-organised team as well. They worked very hard. They decided that they wanted to win second balls and they popped it better than we did, but we got the result so maybe it’s a sign of a good team that you can play badly and still win.”

Bromley keeper Lewis Carey made sure he commanded his penalty area to catch another free-kick from Gaylor within two minutes.

Carey, 20, who played Conference South football for Weston-super-Mare last season, kept his eyes on the ball to collect Gaylor’s first time, deflected, right-footed drive from 25-yards after Darren Budd cut the ball back into his path.

Bromley produced a fine thirteen-pass move in the 35^th minute but Buchanan lacked the killer touch on the edge of the box and stroked his left-footed shot harmlessly wide of the right-hand post.

Swallow linked up well with Pierre Jospeh-Dubois before crossing the ball in with his left-foot and Mullings’ towering header sailed across goal and wide.

Boss Goldberg was full of praise for his back four after the game and influential skipper Rob Swaine conspired to miss a good chance just before half-time.

Buchanan swung in a free-kick with his left-foot from the right and Swaine had his head in his hands after he powered his header over the bar from six-yards.

Goldberg said: “There were three players that have been consistently good all season, three of the back four, maybe we can say four of the back four had great games and everybody else was well under par.”

But the West Sussex side should have equalised inside stoppage time but Pat Harding failed to increase his five-goal haul for the season.

Left-back Sam Fisk was given time and space to clip the ball into the box where lone striker Danny Curd flicked the ball across the penalty area, but an unmarked Harding sliced his right-footed shot wide of the near post when well placed.

Seven minutes into the second half, Bromley striker Bradley Goldberg, who scored for Hastings United in their Third Round defeat at Middlesbrough last January, was wayward with a right-footed effort from inside the corner of the penalty area after the ball bounced following Anderson’s throw.

But Burgess Hill squandered another decent opportunity to deservedly equalise thirteen minutes into the half.

Gaylor drove a corner in from the left and Max Lake-Edwards took a touch before turning and producing a typical central defender’s finish, blazing his right-footed shot over the bar from 12-yards.

Goldberg said: “I didn’t feel (comfortable) in the dug-out. I felt they had far too many times that they got the ball into our box and they had three or four corners. They did cause us problems.  I wasn’t relaxed throughout the whole game.”

Just past the hour-mark, Bromley were off-target when Joseph-Dubois harmlessly headed Pooley’s free-kick wide of the left-hand post from eighteen-yards.

Burgess Hill continued to press but they had no quality in the final third to seriously put their Conference South opponents in any danger.

Gaylor hooked a right-footed volley high over the bar from 25-yards as the uninspiring game entered the final fifteen minutes.

But Bromley finished the game strongly and created chances to kill off their plucky opponents.

Holland – who has formed a formidable partnership at the heart of Bromley’s defence alongside Swaine – swept the ball upfield to release Joseph-Dubois but the Frenchman’s left-footed shot was blocked by the advancing Mansfield.

Substitute winger Brendan Kiernan swung in a corner from the left and Holland had his head in his hands when his hooked volley at the far post flashed agonisingly wide of the near post from inside the six-yard box.

Former AFC Wimbledon winger Kiernan then stole the ball off Burgess Hill right-back Neil Watts and raced towards goal but he lacked composure and clipped his right-footed shot straight at Mansfield, who collected the ball at the second attempt.

Joseph-Dubois then won the ball down the right channel before cutting the ball back to Pooley, who whipped in a precise first-time cross to the penalty spot to the unmarked Goldberg, whose hooked volley was blocked by Mansfield.

Reflecting on those late flurry of chances, boss Goldberg added: “Yes, I think there was a 35-second spell during the second half when we looked good!

Goldberg continued: “We were fortunate today, we were definitely fortunate to win today but we did win and we’re in the hat and we can only play better. We can’t play any worse than what we played.

“At the final whistle, instead of being in a situation where we were seeing the game out with a clear cushion, which is what we should’ve really had, we were quite pleased to hear the final whistle.

“That’s the way we’ve won today but at least we can smile about it because we’ve won today.”

Goldberg was concerned that his side didn’t stamp their class on their opponents that were 56 places lower down in the pecking order.

Many home fans were heading for the exits inside the final ten minutes of the game.

Goldberg said: “It’s not good enough really but we can pick ourselves up from that I’m sure. It’s not like we’ve had some good games this season. We know what we’re capable off.

“It’s a bit disappointing that we didn’t give the fans more excitement today – but we won!”

The Bromley manager explained why he wants a home draw in the next round, which takes place in fourteen days’ time.

He said: “We always want home because commercially for the club it makes a difference and any club really at home would be good and maybe a bit club would be good commercially.

“As you can see from today, I’m not necessarily hoping for a Ryman South side!”

Bromley have a great love affair with The FA Cup, having lost to Gillingham (2006), Colchester United (2009), Leyton Orient (2011) and Fleetwood Town (last season) in the First Round.

“It’s massive. The FA Cup is massive,” said Goldberg, who collected £4,500 in prize money today.

“It’s got that magic for me personally. The FA Cup has still got that magic and for everybody at the club, commercially, fans, everybody. I can’t say enough how important it was that we got through today.

“We’ll take every game as it comes. We’re just relieved that we’re still in the hat for the next round.  It’s one of those The FA Cup. The lower clubs want to have a go at us just like we want to have a go at the bigger clubs.”

Bromley return to action on Tuesday in the Battle of Hayes Lane when they play tenants Cray Wanderers in the Kent Senior Cup Sponsored by Portablefloodlights.com Second Round.

The Wands confirmed this morning that manager Ian Jenkins has parted company after 23 years at the club, the last fourteen as their manager, where he took them from the Kent League to Ryman Premier League.

The club are rooted to the foot of the Ryman Premier League table after collecting four points from eleven games, leaking 42 goals in the process.

Cray Wanderers’ chairman Gary Hillman said: “To say it’s been the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make in my life is a bit of an understatement.”

Jenkins was contacted this morning to ask if he would like to make a statement and his text message said: “Will speak about it with you soon mate.  Too gutted at the moment. Might say something I might regret.”

Goldberg revealed after today’s game that Keith Bird and Michael Paye will take over from Jenkins.

He said: “We will be playing against our ex reserve management team of Keith Bird and Micky Paye, but we’ll be helping, I’m sure we’ll be working very closely together.

“I’m hoping they get off to a very good start and we wish them the very best of luck to turn Cray’s fortunes round this year.”

When asked about who will manage the Suburban League side at Bromley now, Goldberg replied: “We are looking but we’ll see how things go. It was a bit of a shock to us and we’ll see whether we can fulfil our fixtures.”

Looking ahead to the game against the Wands, Goldberg added: “We’ll take it like any other game. We’ll field the best side we can bearing in mind that I want to rest certain players because I think they need resting.”

Bromley: Lewis Carey, Dean Pooley, Joe Anderson, Steven Smith, Rob Swaine, Jack Holland, Pierre Joseph-Dubois, Elliott Buchanan, Bradley Goldberg, Shamir Mullings (Danny Waldren 56), Ben Swallow (Brendan Kiernan 56).
Subs: Joe Welch, Ashley Nicholls, Jacob Erskine, Jay May, Taylor Parmenter

Goal: Shamir Mullings 20

Burgess Hill Town:  Alan Mansfield, Neil Watts, Sam Fisk, Darren Budd, Max Lake-Edwards, Toby Pointing, Paul Armstrong (Greg Luer 81), Joe Keehan, Danny Curd, Pat Harding, Curtis Gaylor.
Subs: Scot Kirkwood, Joe Kay, Matt Morrish, Max Miller

Attendance: 506
Referee: Mr Alan Young (Ely, Cambridgeshire)
Assistants: Mr Jario Marin (Cambridge) & Mr Joshua Few (Histon, Cambridgeshire)