The quest for the Holy Grail

With the 2022/23 FA Cup starting for thousands of non-league clubs this Saturday, it seemed like a good time to look back at Bromley’s brushes with FA Cup fame: a holy grail that has always eluded them.

My first experience of Bromley playing in the FA Cup first round proper came when I was six years old, way back in 1977. I watched Grandstand intently, wondering how my local team, who I had only recently discovered, would do away at Swindon Town. When the result came through on the Vidiprinter it wasn’t good news. Swindon Town 7 (seven) Bromley 0.

It had been 0-0 until the last twenty minutes, but then the gap in fitness opened up and the Division Three side dismantled the boys from the Isthmian League Division One. Little did I know, it would be another nineteen years before Bromley reached that stage of the competition again.