With a place at Wembley Stadium at stake on 20th May, Bromley travel up to Tyneside on Saturday to face Gateshead in the second leg of their FA Trophy Semi Final with a one goal lead following last weekend’s 3-2 win at Hayes Lane.
The Ravens trailed twice in the home leg before eventually winning through thanks to Louis Dennis’ second goal of the game with ten minutes to go.
Manager Neil Smith will be hoping his team can start better than they did at home, where they conceded within the first minute of the match and Heed also hit the post soon after.
Bromley lost 2-0 at Solihull Moors in the National League on Tuesday night, Smith taking the decision to rest a few key players ahead of the trip to Gateshead, including top scorer Louis Dennis and captain Jack Holland.
The Ravens still sit in tenth with 55 points from 36 games, still in touch with the top seven with games in hand.
Gateshead have had a free week and manager Steve Watson has issued a rallying cry to local football fans to get down to the International Athletics Stadium and support his side with Newcastle and Sunderland not playing over the weekend.
The Heed sit two places below The Ravens with 48 points from 36 matches, when the two sides met at the same venue in October Bromley won 2-1 and a similarly close affair is expected this time, with fine margins deciding who will get through to face Brackley Town or Wealdstone in the final.
Bromley are expected to take over 200 fans up to Tyneside, the club running two coaches and lots of fans taking the train up for this momentous match in the club’s history.
It’s been 69 years since The Ravens played at Wembley Stadium winning the FA Amateur Cup 1-0 over Romford in front of 93,000 fans.
This is by far the closest the 125 year old football club have come since then, while Gateshead were losing semi finalists in 2011.
Picture supplied by Ed Boyden.