BROMSGROVE SPORTING manager Brendan Kelly says the Victoria Ground faithful can make the telling difference in the Rouslers’ push for promotion, as they prepare themselves for a highly-anticipated play-off semi-final on home territory.
A Wednesday night semi-final against the fifth-placed side in Southern League Division One Central – which is set to be one of either Sutton Coldfield Town, Didcot Town or Berkhamsted dependent on Saturday’s results – awaits Bromsgrove, who will also host the final should they progress.
Kelly sent out a rallying cry to Rouslers fans to get behind his side, and help get them over the line to achieve promotion to Southern Premier League Central.
“The fans can make a massive difference, they’ve played a big part all season during our unbeaten run.
“We want to get a couple of thousand down there on Wednesday, we’ve been averaging a thousand every week, but we want to take it up another level.
“The fans enjoy our brand of football and we want to get everyone on board, we want to see everyone’s family members and friends down there and to get the whole town behind us.”
Sporting head into this Saturday’s trip to Berhamsted (3pm) for their final away day of the season, which follows a couple of straightforward victories for Kelly’s men during the Easter Bank Holiday weekend.
A 3-0 win away at Aylesbury United on Saturday was backed up with another impressive performance two days later at home to Coleshill Town on Easter Monday.
It ensures Bromsgrove remained unbeaten at home for the entirety of the league campaign, something which delighted the Sporting manager.
“It wasn’t something that we focused on until the last few weeks, but to have achieved a whole season unbeaten is a nice little accolade,” said Kelly.
“We got the result away to Aylesbury United, and then backed that up with another great performance at home on Monday.
“It was a much better performance from us to put right the 3-0 loss we suffered (to Coleshill Town) in January, so it was really pleasing.
“Overall, it was an excellent bank holiday weekend for us, two wins, five goals, none conceded and six points – it’s certainly not to be sniffed at.”
Making an appearance for the Rouslers on Monday was the returning Will Shorrock, who had incidentally been out of action since the aforementioned New Year’s Day defeat to Coleshill Town in the reverse fixture, after suffering a shoulder injury.
Kelly was left enthused by both the forward’s return and his performance against Coleshill, stating that he gives the Rouslers a huge boost ahead of the play-offs next week.
“He looked really good, it’s almost like a new signing for us at a crucial stage of the season.
“Will’s been training hard and kept in shape during his recovery, and looked like he’s never been away.
“He was very sharp and got at their defenders and caused problems, and played a big part before his injury in helping us achieve the unbeaten home run this season.”
As is commonplace at this stage of the season, the Bromsgrove Sporting Player of the Season award – as voted by fans – went the way of Jason Cowley this week, and his manager paid testament to the efforts of his star man.
“It would come very close between a number of players for the award, there have been a fair few worthy winners.
“Jason’s our top scorer with 31 goals this season, so he definitely deserves to be up there.
“It could be between him, Nathan (Hayward), Charlie Dowd and a number of other players, they would all come really close, but I’m delighted for Jason to have won it.”
The Rouslers boss will be ensuring his side remain fully focused on the weekend ahead against Berkhamsted, before turning their attentions to Wednesday night’s semi-final.
“We’ve got to approach the game the same way and take momentum into the play-offs.
“Berhamsted are the only team that we’re yet to beat, and that’s a huge incentive for us to get the win on Saturday.
“We owe ourselves a performance on Saturday, in the reverse game we were nowhere near good enough.”
