Barnet 1-1 Bromley

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

If the FA Trophy semi-final defeat was a disappointment to some, Bromley went about rectifying that with a battling display at Barnet on Tuesday night.

This clash of 2^nd vs 3^rd was arguably the game of the day in the National League and the quality didn’t disappoint. The promotion rivals look like they will be a tough nut to crack in the postseason.

Join me as I reflect on The Good, The Bad and The Ugly from Bromley’s 1-1 draw away at Barnet.

Have a read and let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

The team vs Barnet

The Good

I can't lie, I love it when something I wrote in a previous edition proves to be prophetic. 

I have a bias where Louis Dennis is concerned as he’s the most technically gifted player I have seen in my 28 years watching Bromley. For that reason, I will always give him a longer rope when it comes to correcting poor form. 

We have seven league and cup games left this season (possibly ten if we make it to the National League and FA Trophy finals). Louis will have a crucial impact in the run-in.

Mark my words. 

After the York defeat, while reflecting on what was probably Louis Dennis’s worst performance in a Bromley shirt, I warned fans not to write the mercurial attacker off. 

Speak to any Bromley player who has played with Louis and they will wax lyrical about his special talent and technical ability. His ability to think a few moves ahead of the current passage of play makes him gold dust at National League level. 

Bromley could not afford to lose at Barnet. When they needed a goal with 15 minutes to go, second-half substitute Louis Dennis provided the spark.

In his post-match reflections, Andy Woodman explains that Louis had the extra control and tempo required to find a way through the Barnet back-line. 

If Bromley manage to secure third place this season, and do so by a single point, we will look back at Louis’ equaliser as a key moment.

Bromley set up in a unique shape for this game, which surprised a few fans pre-match. Rather than the usual two up-front, Andy Woodman opted for Michael Cheek as a lone striker with Ben Krauhaus and Corey Whitely popping in and around him to find pockets of space. 

It was a fantastic set-up for two reasons. 1) It allowed Bromley to be defensively solid in midfield against a Barnet side that moves the ball in patterns that pull you out of shape. 2) It gave more freedom for Bromley to break at speed and get in behind the suspect Barnet backline.

For that reason, the best chances of the game fell to Bromley. Krauhaus, Cheek, and Dennis were all denied by Barnet keeper Josh Keeley, who was the Man of the Match on the night. And this is before we mention that Kamarl Grant hit the post.

Will Bromley play like this from now on? It makes sense when you’re away from home and need to be more defensively robust, but I doubt they will set up at home with Cheek alone up top. It’s horses for courses, but it was the right horse for Barnet’s course.

Speaking of Kamarl Grant, he was back in the starting line-up in place of Alex Kirk and I thought he had a very good game. Both going forward and in defence, he offered a bit more robustness to the side, and crucially he was more comfortable advancing with the ball at his feet. 

Yes, he is prone to the odd rash decision, but he’s 21 years old and learning his trade in the senior game. This match should have done wonders for his confidence. 

As the Bromley mantra goes, if you get the shirt, you have to earn the right to keep it. Kamarl did that and then some.

The Bad

This feels churlish to say as Bromley have the second-best defensive record in the league, but for the second game in a row, I noticed that our CBs had some difficulty dealing with a big man up top.

Now, granted, Nicke Kabamba is as good as it gets at this level. He has 28 goals in all competitions for Barnet this season and has played a critical role in their fantastic run. 

However, I felt neither Webster nor Reynolds really got to grips with him in the air. More often than not, Kabamba was able to lay off and spring attacking transitions for Barnet.

Bromley are made of stern stuff, so they defended the second phase pretty well, but off the back of Mark Beck’s big-man masterclass in the FA Trophy semi-final, I couldn’t help but notice a trend.

I’m just a sports writer, so I can't pretend to know how to defend better in those scenarios, but I know that Bromley have to get better at winning the first impact or anticipating the second. 

In view of the impact he had, Solihull Moors may well start with Beck on Saturday. Failing that, they will almost certainly introduce him in the second half to run roughshod once more. Bromley will need to strategise heavily this week to work out how to deal with him.

Barnet keeper Josh Keely earned the Man of the Match award, which indicates how well Bromley played, but it also hints at a lack of ruthlessness from the Ravens.

Bromley’s pragmatic style of play means that games often come down to whether Cheek takes his moment or not. He had that moment in the first half, but he didn’t take it.

Nine times out of ten, Cheek would bury that chance and put his team in a position to close out the game. Unfortunately, this was the one time out of ten.

This is not meant as shade on Cheek. He has been Bromley’s saviour on so many occasions that we can excuse the odd one that goes awry. But that miss was a critical moment.

The Ugly

Let me be fair. Barnet should have had a penalty. 

Josh Passley’s slip in the penalty area almost certainly took down Idris Kanu. Bromley’s travelling fans, myself included, were stationed at the opposite end of the ground, so we didn’t have a clear view. But you can always tell by the nature of the appeal from the players. 

Have a look for yourself and explain why it wasn’t given, especially as the referee wasn’t that far from the incident. I can only assume he thought Idris slipped of his own accord.

National League officiating is like solving a countdown conundrum. “I’ll have a vowel please, Rachel?”

Away from the game, Solihull beat Ebbsfleet 3-0 at Stonebridge Road. This means that Solihull return to Hayes Lane on Saturday needing a win to put the cat among the pigeons. 

Bromley have a game in hand at Oxford City a week on Tuesday, but the Ravens know the drill. Win or draw with Solihull on Saturday, do the job at Oxford City, and third place is likely to end up in their hands.

This is, of course, if you choose to discount Gateshead. 

The Heed can take 3rd place from Bromley if they win all five of their remaining games, but they face a big problem.

Gateshead had their Tuesday night match with Aldershot called off in farcical circumstances. You can read about it here (from Gateshead’s perspective).

This means that their final five games must be played over the course of ten days. 

If they win all five, it will go down in folklore, just like Bromley’s 85/56 season, but the odds are surely against them. The final game of that run sees them host Bromley, of all teams.

I warned when Bromley played Wealdstone, another team with postponement issues, that the National League season was in danger of having a farcical end. Now it has come to pass.

FC Halifax Town, Wealdstone, and Gateshead all face a ridiculous run of games to complete their season on time. In the midst of it all, I keep wondering who is liable for player welfare. Wealdstone aren’t even full-time.

On top of that, what is the National League’s contingency plan if more games fall victim to the weather? Surely they aren’t just hoping and praying that everything goes to plan?

It’s situations like this that make non-league football look ‘non-league’ to those in the EFL ivory towers.

Will lessons be learned, or will we just go back to business as usual next season?

Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Match ratings

Grant Smith (7)

Josh Passley (7)

Karmarl Grant (7) 

Byron Webster (6)

Callum Reynolds (6)

Idris Odutayo (7)

Ashley Charles (7)

Jude Arthurs (7)

Ben Krauhaus (8)

Corey Whitely (7)

Michael Cheek (7)

Subs:

Will Davies for Michael Cheek 90+2’ (n/a)

Louis Dennis for Jude Arthurs 61’ (8)

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Thanks for taking the time to read the match synopsis above.

Please note all match photographs in this article are by Martin Greig - please follow him on Twitter here

All articles are edited by Peter Etherington you can link to him here

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