Kentish Football 
Bromley go into the new season looking for progress
Wednesday 11th August 2010
BROMLEY assistant manager Hayden Bird says his side go into the new season with improvement in mind, writes Stephen McCartney.
The Lillywhites welcome Dorchester Town to Hayes Lane on Saturday and Mark Goldberg’s assistant manager wants his players to take their excellent pre-season form into the opening game.
Bromley won eight of their ten warm-up games, including morale-boosting successes over Gillingham, Dagenham & Redbridge, Millwall and Crawley Town, but Bird, who was speaking to www.kentishfootball.co.uk admitted that he will swap all that for three points against the Dorset outfit.
“Everybody’s done really well, I think the players have worked very hard, they’ve applied themselves admirably, they’ve really shown great attitude, their application in training has been exceptional and they’ve taken aboard new ideas, which is always pleasing,” said Bird.
“Pre-season has been very good, but were philosophical. You never know quite where you are until the real things against Dorchester on Saturday.
“Let’s be fair, it’s pleasing to be winning in pre-season, but it’s not very important. It’s good for morale and good for the supporters but for us it’s only preparation.
“I said from day one since working with the players in pre-season that we will start worrying about the results from the 14th of August.
“We will definitely swap all these good results that we’ve had in July and August for three points on Saturday!”
Looking ahead to the visit of Ashley Vickers’ side, who are gunning for a top-six finish, Bird said: “We’ve kept a close eye on Dorchester and I think we will have to be at our best. Dorchester have the potential in their team to, I think, have a considerably improved season on last year and to be challenging for the top half of the table as they’ve got some exciting young players.”
Having finished in 12th place in the division last season, Bird was asked what the Hayes Lane club’s aspirations are for the season ahead.
“I think it’s impossible to say,” came his reply. “I keep on hearing around different clubs in the league, different managers talking about promotion and play-off’s and you won’t hear any talk like that at Bromley.
“The only way to gage success in football is progress and providing Bromley make progress on last season, everybody here will consider it to be a successful campaign.
“The only thing on my agenda is to keep our heads down and work hard and as a club and as a team we make progress from last season.”
The club have confirmed that nine new players have arrived - with nine going out in the opposite direction - although “there may be one or two more ahead of Saturday’s game.”
The new faces at Hayes Lane are:
Goalkeeper:
Craig Holloway (Braintree Town)
Defenders:
Reis Boyle (Corinthian)
David Graves (unattached - formerly skipper at Carshalton Athletic)
John Scarborough (Hampton & Richmond Borough)
Midfielders:
Sam Butler (Eastleigh)
Tony Finn (Chelmsford City)
Ben Jordan (Ashford Town)
Strikers:
Nic McDonnell (unattached)
Paul Vines (Tooting & Mitcham United)
The players that are no longer with the club are; Richard Butler (Staines Town), Ashley Carew (Ebbsfleet United), Marcus Cassius (loan, Erith & Belvedere), Mark Corneille (unattached), Rob Gillman (Dover Athletic), Ryan Hall (Southend United), Luke I’Anson (Dover Arthletic), Orlando Smith (unattached) and Ugo Udoji (unattached).
“It’s been a fresh start in all sorts of different ways,” explained Bird. “Obviously the structure of the management team has changed and there’s a lot of established players that have left and we wish them all well.
“There’s a lot of players coming into the club we feel will be good additions. There’s a fresh outlook, a fresh attitude in the dressing room and I think that is why everyone has gelled so well and the spirit is so high and good in the camp.”
When asked about squad numbers, Bird replied, “I think it will end up being 20 players. I don’t think there will be many more than that and we will allow for two or three players who we believe are really good young players that can come through the ranks at the club.”
Nicky Greene (2 games) and Salifou Ibrahima (one) are both suspended.
www.kentishfootball.co.uk will be covering this game.
Visit Bromley’s website: www.bromleyfc.net
Bromley v Dorchester Town
Blue Square Bet South
Saturday 14th August 2010
Kick Off 3:00pm
At Hayes Lane, Bromley, Kent BR2 9EF
Red Dragon I.T. Ltd