Season in review: Brockenhurst 2023/24

This was going to be my final comment, but Pat posted it on the last day of the league season, so let’s start here instead: in the end, you probably end up where you deserve to be.  Of course we have our gripes about dodgy red cards, or decisions about ineligible players, and we can have our frustrations about late late goals conceded: but we only know our own gripes, and I’m sure other teams have their own.  Ultimately, as per Greg Lake, the season we get, we deserve.  Gather as many points as you can, and see where it takes you.  68 points, a very solid return.  I’d have taken that at the start of the season, and in the end it wasn’t quite enough for a top-five finish.  To be honest I wasn’t overly stressed on the final day because I always assumed Baffins were going to win at Christchurch.  But it was great fun, wasn’t it?

The big picture: as last year, four teams quickly pulled away.  At the top, an astonishing performance from Moneyfields, winning the league despite not having a home ground, gaining 102 points and being docked three for reasons I won’t go into, despite the fact that Portchester have blocked me on Twitter for saying they didn’t make many friends last season.  Stoneham looked excellent when beating Brock in January, but maybe not quite consistent enough at the end of the day, and then suffered the cruel blow of losing the playoff final.  I won’t miss the dark drives on country roads to Shaftesbury (or the fog!) but there are some good people at the club: it’s fine once you’re there.  At the bottom, Lymington Town were very poor, although some others were quite lucky – both US Portsmouth and Christchurch would have been relegated with those points totals last season. Would they have done better if they’d needed to avoid 19th place?  The evidence suggests, maybe not.  But we’ll be back there again next season – as well as a trip to Hamworthy Recreation, a nice easy journey for me, and congratulations to Millbrook on their stellar rise to the top flight.

Back to Brock, this season: I didn’t see this coming.  Apologies to Pat, but I was expecting – maybe even hoping for – a steady, mid-table season of consolidation.  And when Mitch left at Christmas, I was slightly worried about who’d be scoring the goals (MCSP is still comfortably top scorer, despite only playing half a season!).  But what a wonderful, rollercoaster of a run we had in the second half of the season.  With 11 games to go, I said we’d need an absolute minimum of 22 points to have a chance: we got 24 and just missed out.  Did I want the playoffs?  You bet!  Did I want promotion?  Well, it would be great, but I’m not sure the club is quite ready for it financially.  Need to make sure we are for next season, Mr Chairman!

As for sixth place: if you want some analysis – well, you’re getting it anyway – Brock took 6 points off Portland United, and 4 from Baffins.  We also picked up 7 points from our 8 games against the top four – and both our playoff rivals got one point each.  So, that’s not where it got away from us.  A couple of wasted opportunities along the way, and that was enough.

Slowish start to the season, up to 5th after ten games, and stayed there and thereabouts for the rest of the season: some very decent performances, some moderate, some disappointing, but I never saw a lack of commitment or interest.  (To be fair, at Cowes, I barely saw anything at all…)  The teams in behind us had games in hand, but gradually those got whittled away and it all got very interesting.  To my serious annoyance, I missed three of these late-season games because of a work trip overseas; already taken steps to avoid that happening in future.  Other than that, I missed one cup game for a work function.  Others had a better record than me (take a bow, Content Adviser)…  

Early Cup exit at Horndean, no surprises there; disappointing Vase defeat at Clevedon; great performance but ultimately penalty defeat by Gosport Borough in the Russell Cotes; early Hampshire Cup exit at Hamble; and a thoroughly frustrating penalty defeat in the League Cup at Alresford, having squandered too many opportunities and conceded a last-minute equaliser.  Ah yes, the Southampton Senior Cup, the semi-final a pleasure still to be enjoyed (a semifinal we reached in January).  Obviously Totton will be favourites, but… why not dream?   

Best and worst this season… Best performance, that magnificent victory over Stoneham at the end of February.  Worst – tempted to say away at Laverstock & Ford, which was woeful, but the insipid nonsense at Blackfield & Langley took the biscuit (note: beware of clubs with ampersands).  Goal of the season: obviously Silv Obeng at Portchester, possibly the best goal I will ever see live (Harry’s at Portland wasn’t bad either!).  Player of the season – easy one, this year.  Lots of players were really good, so please consider yourself praised.  But I’m going to pick out four.  Harry Bunce was a joy to watch in the last few weeks (I think everyone who reads my reports knows what I think about him).  Toby Bailey rejoined in November and has been excellent, energy from the first minute to the last, consistently 8/10.  Brandon Channell, where he should be all the time (do you think he knows any underworld spies? – a reference you’ll understand if you’re old enough).  But player of the season is unquestionably captain fantastic Ronan Moore, who has been minimum 8/10 in pretty much every game of the season: excellent defender, leading by example, organising those around him, calming things down, and even a brief stint in goal – he’s always been good, but he took a real step forward this season.  It took me about a second to decide where my vote was going.

Closing thoughts: the standard of refereeing seems to have improved this year: shame we can’t say the same for the assistants, who have often been poor.  Unfit is disappointing; not knowing the laws of the game is simply unacceptable.  But my real criticism this year is reserved for the fixture scheduling.  This was inexcusable.  Brock suffered less than most, it’s not a partial comment, but let’s re-cap.  At the start of the season, the league was due to end on 27 April, with the previous two weekends left blank for postponed fixtures.  Around Christmas, the League moved the final day to 20 April, deleting one of those blank weekends – but, the fatal error, moved every postponed game straight into the final weeks of the season so that, when we had another wet spring, there was nowhere to go.  Yes, clubs should sort out their pitch, invest in proper drainage, of course they should.   But how can it be right that Fareham and Baffins have to play Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday in the final week?  (Not final for Fareham to be fair, they still had 4 games left!)  In short, it called the integrity of the league into question.  Not OK.

Let’s finish with something more positive.  Massive thanks and kudos to Pat and the management team for their tireless work through the season, not least building and re-building the squad (keep this lot, please!).  And thank you to all the players and fans who have brought joy and laughter, come rain or shine, victory or defeat.  We stand together: Badgers to the end.