A Welsh Odyssey for the Bromley Boys: A view from the terrace at Newport County

Apr 06, 2025

The last Tuesday night fixture of the season with a trip across the Severn Bridge... I’m not missing that one!

I work at a school, so I steamed out of the gates as soon as the school day ended to see what the M4 had to offer. It served up a 45-minute delay, of course, but I made it in time for a Newport burger prior to kick-off. While chomping on my burger, I discovered a team sheet sans Grant Smith. As Andy implied in a recent interview, having the best goalie in League Two matters little if he’s laid up on his sick bed, so it was time for Sam Long to step up, and step up he did. The young stopper put in a very creditable performance, which suggests that, subject to a new contract, the goalkeeping jersey needs little attention in the close season.

With that shock out of the way, there were a few more interesting selections to digest (along with the Newport burger). I was pleased to see Idris back. He feels like a more natural left-back than Adam Mayor, who has been great, but looks like an attacker filling in. And on that note, can we agree that Corey Whitely is not a full-back? In this game, he showed the trait that Andy mentions time and again, his energy up the pitch, but that energy is better used higher up. Check the highlights to see who won the ball back to set up Kamarl’s ‘would’ve been goal-of-the-season if it hadn’t hit the post’ shot. With so much discussion about how our non-league stars like Cheek and Smith have adapted to League Two, it’s easy to overlook Corey. He’s had a super season.

Selecting Bromley’s two centre-backs has started to feel a little like a fruit machine. Which pairing will show up today? Press the button to find out. It really is an area of strength for the club as all four (or five) centre-back candidates have different strengths. But while I trust Andy is taking a horses-for-courses approach, it seems vital to play Deji as often as possible. He’s our player now and has the raw materials to be a great centre-back. However, he needs to learn his trade, particularly when it comes to decision-making, and getting game-time is the best way to hammer home those lessons. Has anyone imagined a hybrid Bromley CB that combines Omar’s height with Byron’s experience and communication and Maldini’s power, all wrapped up in a Deji-shaped package? Unstoppable!

That takes us to the centre-back at right-back in the shape of Kamarl Grant. Now he’s ironed out the throw-in issues seen in the Crewe game earlier this season (that I will never be able to erase from my memory), he’s a fine player. I suspect, looking ahead, he will be a career centre-back, but I love the fact that when he’s playing at right-back, he’s happy to channel his inner Danny Imray and burst forward. Even though he’s a defender by trade, he still takes shots and tries to beat opposing defenders. Having a rounded skillset will be a great asset to him in his career. Is this another loanee that Bromley will try to sign permanently?

There were fewer selection surprises in midfield and attack, and that brings me to the reason why this match was such an enjoyable watch. Bromley had 18 efforts on goal and 40 touches inside the box. They might be the league newbies, but no one could accuse them of setting up to keep a clean sheet and nick one on the break or from a set-piece. This was an attack-minded and, dare I say, creative Bromley team who really took the game to Newport. As Andy said in his post-match interview, there was only one team trying to win it in the last 20 minutes.

Having all of those chances and only generating just one goal is frustrating, and I suspect Cheeky had more nightmares than happy dreams when his head hit the pillow on Tuesday night, but I remain firmly in the ‘I will forgive him anything’ camp when it comes to League Two’s leading goal scorer. It does, however, raise an interesting issue regarding Nicke Kabamba.

Here we have an intriguing mirror image of the goalkeeping issue in that, when your first choice is so good, how can the understudy prove themselves worthy? We’ve seen it with Marcus Danaga before his injury, and with Levi before he switched to Walsall, and now we’re witnessing it again with Nicke, who was a proven goal-scorer at Barnet. Fleeting appearances off the bench, either to replace or complement Cheeky, have not given these strikers the time to really show what they have to offer. While we haven’t seen goals from Nicke, he has demonstrated his ability to be almost as much of a pain for opposing centre-backs as Cheeky, which is worth something on its own.

Tuesday night was a battle between two sides with, realistically, little to play for. In his post-match interview, Andy accepted that we will be seeing team selections that allow him to assess the squad he has this year with a view to building for next year. But given the bookies (and more pessimistic fans) were predicting a relegation scrap for Bromley, this is a great position to be in.

Andy’s track record suggests that new faces will arrive in the summer, but the squad is ending the season in a much stronger place than in October. At that point in time, Mash was quite correctly pointing out that Bromley had nobody to come off the bench to change games. Bromley’s trip to Newport was a perfect example of how we’ve moved on. It’s one thing to be able to call upon Harry McKirdy, Adam Mayor, and our borrowed Welsh Wizard Cameron Congreve, but all three of them looked hungry to perform and had a major impact on the match.

Despite the iffy result, I left Wales feeling very positive. The ‘difficult second season’ will be a big challenge, but it’s a challenge that the club, on and off the pitch, are looking well-set to take on.

From Bromley with love

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