Bromley are singing in the rain as they go eleven points clear

BROMLEY moved eleven points clear of Eastleigh at the top of the Skrill South table tonight after ending Ebbsfleet United’s title charge.

Goals from Pierre Joseph-Dubois, Jake Reid and Bradley Goldberg gave the Ravens a 3-0 lead at Stonebridge Road, before the Fleet scored a late consolation through striker Billy Bricknell.

Bromley end New Year’s Day on 53 points from 22 points, eleven points clear of Eastleigh, who have three games in hand.

The full-time Hampshire side arrive at Hayes Lane for a crunch game on Tuesday 28 January but Eastleigh have three games in hand on Mark Goldberg's side.

Ebbsfleet United, who have suffered home back-to-back defeats after losing 2-0 to Dover Athletic on Saturday, remain in third-place with 34 points from 21 games.

Bromley took advantage after the rest of the Conference South was wiped out through waterlogged pitches.

One of the last games to go in Kent was the Skrill Premier clash between Kent rivals Welling United and Dartford.

The game had originally passed a 10:15 pitch inspection, but the Wings warned fans that play might not go ahead at three o’clock, if the conditions worsened, which they did!

The match referee inspected the Park View Road pitch around two hours before kick-off and called the game off after rain lashed Kent.

It has been a really frustrating time for Herne Bay, who have failed to play on three occasions over the holiday period as their game at Faversham Town today was also called off.

Herne Bay’s Winch’s Field was waterlogged on Christmas Eve so the club’s lucrative Boxing Day clash against bitter-rivals Whitstable Town was called off, as was their game at Folkestone Invicta on Saturday, owing to storm damage to the roof of the main stand at Cheriton Road.

Hastings United’s pitch at The Pilot Field was in fine condition at nine o’clock this morning, going by a photograph on twitter, but down came the rain and Tonbridge-based match referee Graeme Ions arrived at one o’clock to inspect the pitch to call off their game against Hythe Town.

Hastings’ groundsman claimed on twitter that it was “all systems go,” so the journey was made down to Hastings to cover the game – we haven’t covered Hythe Town yet this season – but the condition of the pitch deteriorated and hopes of covering a game were dashed when the expected call came through at 13:09 (whilst waiting at Hastings train station) to say that the game had also fallen victim to a waterlogged pitch.

Unfortunately, it was impossible to get from Hastings to Stonebridge Road by train within two hours so it was a day of no football for your editor!

Clubs should inspect their pitches in the morning to prevent everybody from travelling – it was clear from the forecast that it would rain for the whole day – so the game should have been called off before the 12 o’clock watershed.

VCD Athletic’s top-of-the-table clash at home to Thurrock in Ryman League Division One North and Cray Wanderers home game against Hampton & Richmond Borough in the Ryman Premier League, were both called off yesterday afternoon - the rest were called off this morning!
 
However, one Ryman Premier League game will go ahead on Saturday because Maidstone United are at home to Hendon and the Stones can take advantage of playing on their 3G pitch, which can cope with these horrible weather conditions, so at least football followers can take in some action this weekend.