After a the disappointment of Tuesday night’s defeat at Woking, Bromley are back in National League action again on Saturday afternoon when they entertain Yeovil Town at Hayes Lane.
The midweek 2-1 loss at The Kingfield saw The Ravens slip to third in the table, but it is incredibly tight at the top of the league with half of the fixtures already completed only four points separate the top seven.
Neil Smith’s side have suffered a number of injuries during the heavy early season schedule, losing keeper Mark Cousins long term and Marc-Anthony Okoye to a career ending injury, along with Jake Goodman who was already out until the new year.
Jordan Higgs, Adrian Clifton, Reeco Hackett-Fairchild and Sam Wood have also joined the casualties in recent weeks, while Korey Henry is out on loan, leaving the squad very light.
Smith did bring in Ben Williamson from Eastleigh, who scored on debut in the win at Sutton and Jayden Onen on loan from Brentford, but the young winger has yet to feature.
When the sides met at Huish Park in September Yeovil won 3-1, with Bromley defender Chris Bush assuming goalkeeping duties following the loss of Cousins to a shoulder injury early on. The Glovers drew 2-2 at home to Aldershot Town on Tuesday night, coming back from a goal down twice. Darren Sarll’s side haven’t won a league match in five attempts, but have drawn three and currently sit in sixth place on 37 points from 22 games.
At the midway point in the National League season Bromley have picked up 40 points so far from their 23 matches and sit in third, which is ahead of the target that Smith set his side at the start of the campaign. Following the loss at Woking, Smith warned his players that if they played like that again on Saturday they would not get a result against Yeovil and that he thought they switched off after Luke Coulson had put them in front.
The history between Bromley & Yeovil Town goes back to the 1980s and especially the title race in 87/88 when The Glovers pipped The Ravens to the title and promotion to what was then the GM Vauxhall Conference.
This could prove to be a key match between two sides in need of a win as they go into the second half of the league season looking to keep pace with the other challengers, as no side has yet taken a grip of the single automatic promotion place.