Bromley maintained their unbeaten start to the season with a narrow victory at Maidenhead United although they were indebted to two late Reeco Hackett-Fairchild goals.

Amidst scorching temperatures that necessitated the need of multiple drink breaks, Bromley fell behind to a Josh Smile strike just after the hour mark before a Hackett-Fairchild brace in the last 13 minutes completed an unlikely turn around for the Ravens.

Neil Smith had shuffled his pack ahead of the visit to Maidenhead, with two games in 72 hours taking its toll on his squad.

Adam Mekki, Marc-Anthony Okoye and Michael Klass replaced Luke Coulson, Jack Holland and Josh Rees respectively. Jordan Higgs and Adrian Clifton were injured with George Porter also unavailable.

Lining up in a 4-4-1-1 Bromley were on the backfoot from kickoff and could have been two goals down within the first 15 minutes.

Shamir Fenelon side-footed wide from a James Akintunde cross inside the opening three minutes to serve Bromley an early warning.

Yet it was two successive chance on the quarter hour mark that saw Bromley desperately cling on. First Okoye had to clear a scrambled effort off the line after Joe Ellul’s knockdown had caused a myriad of problems.

Michael Cheek then repeated the heroics blocking a Danny Whitehall volley on the goal line after Mark Cousins had saved the strikers initial effort.

With Maidenhead making all the running in the first half, Bromley to their credit were resolute in defence and restricted the Magpies to only one more opportunity in the first half.

Left back Rene Steer took aim from distance, nine minutes before the interval, but saw his strike bend narrowly wide of Cousins’ right hand post.

Having had neither a shot on or off target in the first half, Smith responded by substituting Mekki for Coulson at the interval and the Ravens responded with a more industrious second half performance. 

Klass saw his shot from 8 yards out blocked by Comley before Joe Kizzi saw his goal bound header cleared by the impressive Ellul.

However Maidenhead continued to be a problem on the counter attack and promptly took the lead from one such foray forward.

A Bromley corner was punched away by Taye Ashby-Hammond, the loose ball was picked up by Smile who started and finished a lightning break that culminated with him smashing a loose ball into the net after Whitehall’s initial effort was blocked.

In truth Bromley should have equalised immediately but Coulson shot well wide after being freed by Michael Cheek, the wideman was given the freedom of the penalty area but shot inexplicably wide after Ashby-Hammond narrowed the angles.

Going in search of an equaliser Neil Smith changed Bromley’s shape to a 4-4-2 with second half substitute Rees playing wide right and Hackett-Fairchild through the middle alongside Cheek.

That tactical tweak proved crucial as the last 13 minutes of the game became the Hackett-Fairchild show. 

His first goal came after Cheek pounced on an error by James Comley, the frontman played a slide rule pass for his strike partner and Hackett-Fairchild made no mistake slotting past Ashby-Hammond at the near post.

With Bromley now sensing blood, they were nearly caught out five minutes from time. Ellul sent a fantastic cross-field ball to Whitehall who killed the ball and shot in one motion but the strikers effort was tipped away at full stretch by Cousins. A move and save that brought applause from all corners of the ground.

Maidenhead were made to rue that missed opportunity as Hackett-Fairchild had the final word on proceedings.

Picking up a pass, in acres of space, 25 yards from goal he drove unimpeded into the penalty area before blasting a shot across Ashby-Hammond into the corner of the net to win the game for Bromley.

A breathtaking finish to an evenly contested game that sees Bromley stay second in the Vanarama National League table but send a clear warning to the league that they are indeed contenders this season. 

Bromley will next play AFC Fylde at Hayes Lane this coming Saturday

Maidenhead United: Ashby-Hammond, Steer, Ellul, Fenelon (Sheckleford, 75), Comley (Mensah, 90), Whitehall, Twumasi, Akintunde (Kelly, 77), Upward, Massey, Smile.

Subs not used: Keetch, Landers.

GOAL SCORER: Smile (65)

Bromley: Cousins; Kizzi, Okoye, Bush, Wood; Hackett-Fairchild, Raymond Bingham, Mekki (Coulson 46); Klass (Rees, 63); Cheek

Subs not used: Dunne, Tanner, Henry.

GOAL SCORER: Hackett-Fairchild (77, 89)

Referee: Scott Jackson

Attendance: 1,511