In Review: Ashford Utd Women 2 - 8 Bromley Women - FA Cup First Qualifying Round

My daughter has been into football in a big way for a few years now. There was no sign that would be the case when she set foot in Hayes Lane for the first time on a pre-pandemic autumn afternoon. Bromley lost to Barrow that day, and by the time our FA Trophy triumph came around in 2022, she had only been to a handful of games. But she caught the bug at Wembley and has been a season ticket holder and junior football player since. 

Despite being a no-nonsense defender, her idols are Michael Cheek and Alessia Russo, who we watched up close when Manchester Utd played Brighton at Crawley's ground a couple of years ago. That was our first foray into the WSL, and since then, we've watched Brighton several times and have seen them take on some big names. I toyed with getting a season ticket for London City this year, but my daughter’s matches and our distance from Bromley meant we'd probably end up missing more games than we'd see. Even so, we still hope to make a match or two.

With that in mind, it might surprise you to hear that we hadn’t made it to a Bromley Women's game before now. But on Sunday, after my daughter's first game of the season, five of us (two adults and three kids) watched the Ravens play Ashford United for a combined total of £14.