The FA Cup means the world to us, says Bromley manager Mark Goldberg

BROMLEY manager Mark Goldberg says it is important for the club to reach The FA Cup First Round again.


The Ravens kick-off their FA Cup campaign with a home tie against Burgess Hill Town in the Second Qualifying Round on Saturday.

Bromley are celebrating their 75^th anniversary at Hayes Lane this season and Goldberg’s side have a 100% home league record at the famous non-league venue this season.

Burgess Hill Town arrive sitting in 12^th place in the Ryman League Division One South table with four wins and two draws from their ten games.

The Sussex outfit are the only side to beat Tony Russell’s VCD Athletic this season when they came away from the current Ryman League Division One North leaders with a 3-1 win at Oakwood in the Preliminary Round.

Burgess Hill then eased to an 8-1 win over Alton Town to set up Saturday’s clash.

But despite Bromley’s successful start to the season, which puts the Kent club in second-place in The Skrill South, Goldberg says he is wary of potential danger.

He said: “We’re going into the game with confidence, but certainly we won’t underestimate the opposition.

“We have to be very professional in our approach and have to have a very disciplined and focused performance to get the result that we need.”

Goldberg made the trip to Walton Casuals on Tuesday night to watch The Hillians’ 2-1 defeat.

“I went to see them myself during the week against Walton Casuals and I know what they’re about,” said Goldberg.

“They’re well organised and they’re a team on the up in the lower divisions.

“We’ve just got to make sure it doesn’t become a banana skin for us.

“They all work extremely hard for each other. They’re very committed, hard- working team that try to play football as well.

“I was impressed with their attitude with what they’re all about and by no means we’re going into the game expecting it not to be a very hard test for us.

“We’ve just got to make sure that we’re just as well organised and everybody works hard and doesn’t take them for granted then we should be strong enough to get through to the next round.”

Bromley, who have never beaten Football League opposition in The FA Cup, have reached the first round four times in recent years, losing to Gillingham (2006), Colchester United (2009), Leyton Orient (2011) and last season they went down to a 3-0 defeat away to League One side Fleetwood Town.

“We like to progress in The FA Cup,” said Goldberg.

“It’s so important commercially. It’s very important for us to respect The FA Cup in the way that we do as an opportunity to show the young talent that we have – that want to do better for themselves.

“As a management team we want to be able to test ourselves against better opposition, so The FA Cup means the world to us and we hope this year won’t be an exception and we have a decent run.”

Bromley have claimed 21 points from their 9 games in Conference South and are one point behind Eastleigh.

Subject to Saturday’s FA Cup result, Bromley play tenants Cray Wanderers in the Kent Senior Cup Second Round next Tuesday, before playing Boreham Wood (away), Chelmsford City (home), Sutton United (away) and Maidenhead United (away) in October.

Goldberg said: “Yes, I’m delighted with the start so far, but I think we’ve got a lot of hard games coming up in October and in the end of October we’ll know where we stand.

“We’re very pleased with having the points on the board that we have but we’re very realistic to know that we’ve got a very difficult October ahead of us.  The number of away games against tough opposition.  It’s going to be a big test for us.”

Visit Bromley’s website: www.bromleyfc.net

Bromley  v  Burgess Hill Town
The FA Cup with Budweiser Second Qualifying Round
Saturday 28^th September 2013
Kick Off 3:00pm
At Hayes Lane, Bromley, Kent BR2 9EF