I’m actually quite pleased with the fact that I’m comfortable with the squad we’ve got at the moment, says Bromley boss Mark Goldberg

BROMLEY manager Mark Goldberg says he felt fulfilled after guiding the club to the Vanarama Conference South title on 18 April 2015.

The Ravens celebrated their first league title since 1961 when Weston-super-Mare were comfortably defeated 3-0 at Hayes Lane to gain promotion to non-league football’s top table for the first time in their 123-year history.

Bromley have decided to turn full-time for the first time this season and will train three mornings a week on the club’s artificial pitches at the back of Hayes Lane.

Excitement is building ahead of their Vanarama National League debut when Wrexham visit Hayes Lane on Saturday, 8 August.

When asked how it felt ending the famous non-league club’s title famine, a proud Goldberg said: “A great sense of fulfilment. It’s been a long time coming.

“The last couple of years, I’ve been ready to push on so it was a mixture of self-
fulfilment and also a great achievement for the club as a whole and I feel the club’s ready.

“I’ve been a part of the club for many, many years and I’m so really pleased for everybody at the club.”

Bromley have beaten Sevenoaks Town (4-0) and VCD Athletic (5-0) on their travels in pre-season and drew Millwall (2-2) before losing 2-1 to Gillingham at Hayes Lane last night.

Bromley host League Two side Cambridge United on Saturday, before travelling to Beckenham Town on Monday, 27 July and playing a young Crystal Palace side at Hayes Lane on Friday 31^st July, (19:00), before travelling to National League South side Sutton Untied the following day.

“I think everyone showed last night that there all fighting and it’s by no means any decisions being made of who will be in the starting line-up (to play Wrexham),” said Goldberg.

“I would say one or two are starting to put their mark on a shirt.

“I think Palace will bring their under 21’s. The Sutton game will probably, in all fairness, be more of a test of what we’ve got to face in the following weeks.

“I came back from college and I was player-manager at Beckenham before I became player-manager of Bromley reserves. It’s got some meaning for me but at the end of the day we’ve just got to learn from the game again.”

When asked about his current squad numbers, Goldberg said: “I’m actually quite pleased with the fact that I’m comfortable with the squad we’ve got at the moment, but obviously we’ll learn a lot more once we go in.

“I think we will be right. We will have a little bit more time now. Certainly players haven’t maybe had as much game time as I would have liked.

“I had a couple of niggling injuries last night, like Rob Swaine, again not available, Sean Francis, not available. Cookie (Anthony Cook) was only half fit and only gave us 20 minutes.  Birch (Adam Birchall) wasn’t available, his back stiffened up even just warming up so we’ve still got a few little niggles but all in all, I think we have proved so far that we have the ingredients to compete next year.”

Goldberg is delighted that he and his coaching staff can work on the team during the day.

“Oh fantastic. If anything, it’s a massive tick in the box. It feels like we’ve been full-time, shall I put it another way? It seems like we haven’t been anything but full-time.

“Everyone’s just adapted so extremely well and it just fits the club now. It’s all about timing. I don’t think we were ready before as a club.

“There’s been a lot of changes.  The infrastructure is here. We’ve got good facilities now at the back, new astroturf pitches. The players are now full-time players and it feels like we haven’t been anything else.”

Bromley are expected to linger around mid-table in the Vanarama National League this season.

Goldberg said: “We’re in it because we want to be in it and we expect the pressure. We’re happy to take on the pressure.  You can’t be in football if you can’t take the pressure as a manager – that goes with it, the pressure’s there at any level.

“You’re only as good as your last run so we’re under no illusions. We will be measured during the first ten games and after ten games we’ll know whether we’re capable of competing at that level.

“I know one thing, we’ll keep learning game by game and we’ll keep improving.

Attendance figures at Hayes Lane – which was opened back in 1938 – have increased since April – 3,144 watched the game against Millwall eight days ago – and Goldberg hopes the momentum carries into the new season.

“We really want to get at least one thousand for these (pre-season) games.  Hopefully Cambridge will have 1,200-1,300 here.

“We want to get to 1,500, if we can, on average.”

Visit Bromley’s website: www.bromleyfc.tv/site

Bromley  v  Cambridge United
Pre-Season Friendly
Saturday 25^th July 2015
Kick Off 3:00pm
at Hayes Lane, Bromley, Kent BR2 9EF