The Long, Long Road to Wembley by Dave Roberts

Author:Dave Roberts [Roberts, Dave]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-08-29T16:00:00+00:00

Part Two

CHAPTER TEN

I moved around a lot in the next thirty-two years. I was living in Leeds when my girlfriend became my wife, and Manchester when Bromley finally got promoted. I was in New Zealand when Bobby Moore played at Hayes Lane, and the USA when the chairman’s brother-in-law, despite having no relevant experience, was made the club’s manager.

Although geographical reasons (combined with being permanently broke) stopped me from watching Bromley in person, I kept in touch, wherever I was in the world. This was thanks to my mum sending me the Bromley &Kentish Times and The Grubby sending me the occasional NewsShopper, south-east London and north-west Kent’s invaluable local rag.

On the warm, late-August day when Bromley drew 1-1 at home to Slough (Butch Dunn scoring his fifth goal in as many games), thus preserving their unbeaten record in the league, I was getting married to Caroline, the nurse I’d met in Leeds, at a small church in rural Devon. Unlike Derek (aka Del the Biker) on his wedding day, I resisted the urge to dash along to Hayes Lane after the ceremony to catch the second half. Besides, I would never have got there in time.

We’d moved to Manchester by the time Bromley returned to the Isthmian League (Premier Division) thanks to a Junior Crooks goal sealing a vital win against Finchley. I tried to picture it in my mind, but that was unsatisfactory, since I didn’t have much to work on – the description in the paper of ‘a tidy finish from close range’ was sparse.

I also missed out on seeing Bromley play Chertsey Town in the preliminary round of the FA Cup the following season, my excuse being that we now lived in New Zealand. I’d been offered a job in Wellington, and both Caroline and I liked the idea of a fresh start.

Despite the distance, I still worried about my team’s prospects since goals had been hard to come by in the early games of the campaign and Chertsey had made a decent start in the Athenian League.

A week later, my anxiety turned to joyous disbelief as I opened the blue airmail envelope from my mum, unfolded the back page of the Bromley &Kentish Times and saw that Bromley had managed to win by a record score, 12-1. I read, and re-read, descriptions of each goal, including all four of Galloway’s and each of Tomlin’s hat-trick.

Another thing I wished I’d witnessed was seeing Simon Keith in a Bromley shirt. Keith had fled his native Canada for England after life under the spotlight became too much and ended up in Bromley, where no one, including players, officials and supporters (like me), knew anything about him.

His story – when it emerged – made headline news in several national papers. Because when he was twenty and seriously ill, Simon Keith had undergone a heart-transplant operation. Wanting to ease his way back into football, and since he had relatives living nearby, he joined Bromley. After proving himself as far too

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