Supporter of (current) Ryman League Premier Division side BROMLEY, have a season ticket despite living in Hereford and not being able to attend as often as i'd like. Gave up on all league football 20 years ago, disillussioned with the money aspect, the all seater aspect, the way in which supporters were treated - just couldn't get any personal enjoyment out of it. Non league football is so much more fun, more individual. and at the end of the day, if you're losing, you can pop in the bar for a beer and life seems a little better.

I have a German football history dating back to the mid eighties when my father (a civilian) was stationed with the British Forces. We lived in Krefeld, and those years were the years that Bayer Uerdingen did amazingly well. we even had dauerkarte....saw them win the German Cup in 1985 in Berlin, 2-1 against Bayern. Also saw them in the Uefa Cup and the European Cup Winners Cup, where they got to the semi. Visited lots of German grounds back then - Moenchengladbach, Koeln, Duisburg, Leverkusen, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Bochum, Dortmund, Saarbruecken - although many have now been replaced with the new all seater variety.

Anyway, after I was back in the UK I was going to punk gigs and meeting like minded people - I starting working for bands like Mega City Four, got over to Hamburg a few times, knew who FC St Pauli were and their background. And as years have gone on, been over with other bands, knew other bands with a St Pauli connection (e.g. Leatherface)...last couple of times were with Strike Anywhere - the first time my band at the time (Blocko) played in Hamburg too, and we all stayed at Hafen Strasse, then the next time we stayed just near the stadium...both times I scored some nice merch and bits. One of which I was wearing on Saturday in Leeds when my new band (Ruin You!) played up there.

I like visiting other European grounds too on my travels - Sparta, Feyenoord, Go Ahead Eagles, Excelsior, Radnicki Nis, Espanol (old ground) - my favourites are old grounds, in residential areas, with a bit of atmosphere with terracing still in place

Got in touch with the Birmingham mob after reading about them recently (and Brownstock) and they kindly sent me their 'zine - kind of inspired me to do a bit more.

But sadly, never seen FC St Pauli play...hope to remedy that very soon!

I guess the reason I am here is because I feel a great affinity with FC St Pauli, it's supporters and it aims and goals. Like us all

Welcome to the nut house.

as a follower of the non-league Real Madrid (i.e. AFC Wimbledon) I, too, welcome you to this board

Ryman League rocks

Excellent post, there's certainly some excellent stuff being played in the Ryman this year, especially by my local side(the pub team from Thanet) Ramsgate who are currently top of Ryman 1. Hope to be back at Hayes Lane later this season when Ramsgate visit Cray Wanders.

Hayes Lane is certainly one of the best non-league grounds in London. Well worth a visit.

Maybe yet another trip to Hayes Lane to see Ramsgate in the John Ullman Kent Cup semi-final as i won't be able to see Rams at Cray due to being in Hamburg

wow, been some time since i managed to get on to this site again (were there some problems?) - but nice to see people interested in what i posted!

bromley have done well this year, four points off afcw and doing ramsgate 4-0 in the county cup semi....sorry! but come saturday there's an end of an era as one mr mark goldberg (remember palace in the late nineties? yes, THAT one) is taking over as manager. god help us all....

had some pictures of my band taken recently where i waqs wearing st pauli shirts - some may be up at

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where you can also hear our racket...

Going to the KSC Final at Bromley tonight against Gravesend, just a shame it wasn't Ramsgate against Margate but we got done 4-0 at Bromley which was the first time this season the Rams have lost successive games. Always good to go to Hayes Lane as it's a real gem of the Non-Leagues.

Yet another trip to see Ramsgate play at Bromley this Saturday in the Ryman Premier, expect to see the trusty totenkopf in amongst the Ramsgate fans...

sadly i was many miles west yesterday, in my new job as a steward at hereford united fc...but my heart was at The Lane, and was happy to see a 1-0 victory for the boys.

Highlights should be online soon at

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Must admit that Bromley were well deserved winners yesterday.
Rams had a great opening 15 mins but from there on, it was all defence as we had then set our stall out for a draw as Ollie Schulz waa taken off injured again.

If the Bromley players had their shooting boots on, they could have scored at least 8 as by my reckoning there were at least 10-12 gilt-edged
chances.

Apart from the result, another most enjoyable day at Hayes Lane.

The new pitch is looking good btw...

The wife and I were sharing a table in a pub last night with another couple and I have to admit to a bit of eavesdropping - as their conversation was clearly about football - and I was guessing that the guy was a reporter of some kind. We got chatting and curiosity got the better of me, and I asked the guy about what I'd heard (there had been mention of bungs/loans/debt etc). Turns out he had been interviewing Mark Goldberg, who is now Chairman of Bromley FC (which you'll all know anyway, but I didn't).

Anyway, this guy works for The Observer and the article (I think) is in next week's edition.

Me and Andy are going to Grays v Bromley this weekend, is anyone else going? Didn't know that Mark Goldberg was the chairman.

Grays is a very depressing place and the Recreation Ground is even more so depressing.

Look out for Athletic striker Aaron McClean, ex Orient who is now attracting the attention of league clubs.

It does have 1 great thing going for it - the club bar at Grays is the only Football club bar in the country to be listed in CAMRA's 'Good Beer Guide' and I'm looking forward to (for a change) drinking real ale at a Football match, not mass produced lager!
Does anyone else know of decent club bars where you can get real ale?