A trio of Bromley fans came to the Matchroom Stadium dressed in white robes and keffiyehs. "Every team needs a sheikh," was Rob Kivanc's irreverent reasoning for his costume.
Bromley may never attract such investors, yet at the helm they at least have a man whose passion for the game is deep – much deeper than his pockets ever were. Mark Goldberg frittered a personal fortune of £40m on Crystal Palace while he was their chairman between 1998 and 1999. It was an investment which dragged Palace to the brink of liquidation and caused Goldberg to file for bankruptcy.
The 48-year-old has long since been reinvigorated by his return to football as a manager and his non-league Bromley were highly creditable in defeat here. Their fervour and pertinacity unsettled Leyton Orient, yet by the time of Aaron Rhule's second-half red card for a spat with George Porter, Bromley had conceded twice and wasted all their own chances.
"I don't think that the game passed us by in the way that it did against Colchester [the last time Bromley reached the first round in 2009]", Goldberg said.
"We controlled a lot of the game, we restricted Orient to one or two shots from outside the box and we had some opportunities. I think the occasion just got the better of one or two of the players when they had an opportunity to strike on goal. In a normal situation they would have at least hit the target."
Of the chances Bromley wrought, several fell to or were created by the influential Gareth Williams, but more of his efforts went over the bar than under. For Orient, who took Arsenal to a fifth-round replay last year, it was the antithesis; chances were sporadic but finished with precision.
They led through Matthew Spring's seventh-minute goal – a controlled side-footed strike which flew from his left boot into the exact spot that he intended. The second goal, in the 57th minute, was equally well taken. Following a Bromley corner, Porter spurted from his own half into the opposition box and slotted a shot neatly inside the near post.
Porter might have been dismissed seven minutes later when he and Rhule clashed. Instead the referee and his assistant deemed the Bromley player to have been the primary aggressor and awarded Porter only a yellow.
Orient's third goal was inevitable as Bromley tired. When Moses Odubajo's shot rebounded off the post, Jimmy Smith was calm enough to ram the rebound past two scrambling defenders.
Bromley's players received a five-minute standing ovation from their supporters. And even if they will look back on this fixture with disappointment, Goldberg is surely better placed than any manager to lift them from defeat.
