Long Live Our King Louis

IN THIS most unusual of National League seasons – spiced up by the two additional playoff places – accurately predicting who will finish where has become close to impossible.

- Matt Badcock

Bromley picked up three wins and two draws from their opening five games, which included a 6-1 pasting of Leyton Orient and a 2-0 win over another Non-League new kid, Hartlepool United.

A 5-1 drubbing by Dagenham & Redbridge in game six had the know-alls nodding, ‘Ah, told you it wouldn’t last’.

Macclesfield Town, whose recent financial problems have shown what an incredible job John Askey and the players are doing, as well as Sutton United – and to some extent Dover Athletic – have had to deal with similar.

But, approaching the final bend, Neil Smith’s Bromley are well and truly in the promotion race – as well as in the FA Trophy quarter-finals. While at times they’ve been free scoring, they’ve also shown they can do the ugly side. A 1-0 backs-to-the-wall job against ten-man Leyton Orient springs to mind. Attacker Louis Dennis says it’s those games that show their true character.

“We’ve got our games at home where we know the pitch is going to be nice,” he says. “That’s where we can maybe play our football – get it down and play.

Energy

“But you’ve got to go to Barrow away when it’s freezing cold, we won 3-0, and we hung onto a 1-0 lead at Leyton Orient. They’re the games that show the most, they show the character.