Bromley 1-0 AFC Fylde

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Bromley have only lost three games this season. From the outset, it was clear this clash was unlikely going to trouble their L column. In fact, they were so dominant in the first half that the only question seemed to be how many they would score. 3? 5? 7? 20?

But as chance after chance came and went, you had to wonder if the football gods might be about to smite the profligate Ravens. 

A second-half goal brought sweet relief for Andy Woodman’s team, but instead of gushing through the floodgates, they paddled their canoe to the shallow end and rode out the storm. It should have never come to that.

In Machel’s absence, Peter Etherington brings you The Good, The Bad and The Ugly from Bromley’s 1-0 home win against AFC Fylde.

Get involved in the comments section when you’re done digesting.

The Line-up vs AFC Fylde

The Good

As I left the ground at full time, I passed a dad and his lad in the car park. “I’m glad they won on your first game,” the dad said to his boy as they strolled off into the night. It was a wholesome moment; the kind childhood memories are made of. But it got me thinking.

If that was your first Bromley game, what would you come away thinking? How would fresh young eyes view that performance?

Bromley were on top from the first seconds of the match, when a trick play at kick-off put the entire Fylde team on the wrong side of the pitch, leaving Besart Topalloj free to over-hit a cross to the back post. 

From that moment on, in the first half at least, the Ravens never looked troubled. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Fylde were one of the least inspired teams to have graced Hayes Lane’s astroturf in recent memory. There was no plan. We’ve seen Bromley teams like that in years gone by, so I can only sympathise.

Despite their creative limitations, the Coasters bravely battled to stay in contention and their goalkeeper more than earned his keep. But if Fylde were going to get anything from this game, Bromley were going to have to hand it to them. 

The Ravens reconnaissance unit had done their homework. In contrast to recent games at Hayes Lane, Bromley had the lion’s share of the possession and they were set up to make the most of it.

After a period out of the side, footballing ferret James Vennings came into Woodman’s midfield to wriggle his way through tackles and pop balls into the wings and channels. In that regard, he did exactly what was asked of him, but he also dovetailed well with smooth operator Lewis Leigh in the centre of the park.

Leigh once again showed his ability to get his head up in a tight spot and pick a pass. I can see him working his way up the leagues in the years to come. He’s a real talent.

Corey Whitely, meanwhile, seemed to have free reign to explore the space afforded to him, which was plentiful at times. 

It was a game of highs and lows for Corey, but his lung-busting, shoulder-barging burst to the byline earned him the space to cross to Josh Passley for Bromley’s opener. Passley’s finish was excellent under pressure, but Corey’s run and cross was the difference-maker. Yes, he missed a sumptuous sitter in the first half, my word did he miss it, but with his graft and craft, he more than atoned in my view.

However, my hypothetical man-of-the-match award went to Deji Elerewe. In a game where Bromley’s midfield was set up to shine, the defender’s fast and nimble ball-carrying was a constant headache for the opposition. They had no answer to it.

Fylde fell for the trap time and time again. Bromley played the ball into Byron Webster and waited for the rush from the opposition attack. Once Byron was engaged, the ball went wide to a flanking centre-back who powered upfield unchallenged. 

Deji repeatedly entered the opposition’s half with the ball at his feet, opening up countless shooting and crossing opportunities for his teammates as the Fylde defence struggled to deal with the overload. In fact, watch the replay of Bromley’s goal and you’ll notice the move begins with Deji carrying the ball deep into Fylde territory before laying it off.

But there was a specific moment in Deji’s performance that sealed my admiration. He lost a header. Bear with me.

Deji jumped for a ball close to the byline on the halfway line and was beaten by a smaller opponent with a poorer starting position. Rather than sulk, Deji was outwardly annoyed with himself. Determined to atone, he chased the attacker with steely focus and exacted a perfect tackle to regain possession on the edge of the area. That’s a player who cares; a player who demands more from himself. He’ll go far with that attitude.

Above all, it was a great example to any youngster watching the game. No finger-pointing. No sulking. Just taking responsibility and battling to make it right. That rather sums up the positive side of this Bromley performance. When a walk in the park turned into a trudge through the mud, they maintained a measured, professional approach and got their result.

The Bad

I’ve been reading The Three Little Pigs to my daughter of late. You know the tale. The wolf huffs and he puffs but he never gets a tasty piglet for his troubles. As the second half wore on, Bromley’s wolf looked like it might succumb to a similar fate.

Fylde’s house was certainly built of fallible material. In the first half they allowed numerous pot-shots from the edge of the area, conceded corners and freekicks galore, and gave away two gilt-edged one-on-ones. Bromley, meanwhile, huffed and fluffed.

Give Fylde credit. Even though their positional defending was lax at times, they threw themselves into blocks and did their best to play the dark arts. Importantly, they kept the Ravens at bay from every set-piece they faced. Not many teams can say that this season. 

On the managerial circuit, Andy Woodman’s Bromley side are considered a set-piece team. But in this game, the Ravens looked like they needed to revisit their dead-ball designs. The ‘pump it to the back post and hope for the best’ methodology wasn’t getting results, and the less said about the short corners the better. 

Where corners are concerned, am I the only one who thinks it’s a waste to have Michael Cheek standing on the goalkeeper? I get it, he’s waiting for a fumble or a knock-down, and it’s a low-impact zone so he’s unlikely to get injured standing there. But the guy knows how to head a ball. Could he not be attacking the front post while the centre-backs attack the far post? Mix it up a bit?

Michael Cheek had a quiet game by his standards, but his role seemed to be that of an attacking decoy; pulling opposition defenders out of position to give his teammates space to operate. He stuck to his task and ran until the final whistle, but I couldn’t help but notice he looked a little leggy in the final third of the game.

Does Bromley’s front-man need a rest? 

There isn’t a like-for-like replacement in the squad, but then a like-for-like replacement for Michael Cheek would be hard to come by, not to mention expensive. The budget just isn’t there. So what’s the answer? And what if, heaven forbid, he gets injured?

When Michael went down and stayed down in the first half, there was a noticeable tension in the crowd. No Cheek, no party. 

In all honesty, against Fylde, Bromley probably could’ve winged it without him. Some might point to that as a sign we don’t need to rely on Cheek anymore, but this game wasn’t a big test for the Ravens. Facing better opposition without the focal point of your attack doesn’t bear thinking about.

Is it healthy to have so much stock invested in one player?

The Ugly

Do Bromley’s attacking players have a mental block in front of goal at the moment?

Deji Elerewe fluffed a one-on-one situation, putting the ball into the midriff of the goalkeeper rather than the 18 square metres of goal beyond him, but you can forgive a centre-back for a striking indiscretion.

But where the attackers are concerned, we’ve now seen head-in-hands sitters missed in two consecutive games at Hayes Lane. Michael Cheek blasted wide instead of tapping home against Blackpool, and Corey Whitely followed suit against Fylde, pumping the ball high into the Glyn Beverly Stand when the goal below was so much more inviting.

If we witness a third episode of tap-in-phobia on Tuesday night against Aldershot, can we please get a therapist involved? I don’t care what kind: behavioural therapist, aromatherapist, even a marriage counsellor if it gets the job done. “So how long have you been having resentful feelings towards your tap-ins?”

It wasn’t just the missed sitters that were worrying. Time and time again Bromley were given space on the edge of the area to unleash thunderbolts. Time and time again, those thunderbolts turned into wet rope. 

Corey Whitely and Louis Dennis were both guilty of supplying Fylde’s goalkeeper with catching practice. We know they’ve got thunderbolts in their locker, just look at Corey’s beauty against Dorking last month, so it was frustrating to watch them fluff their lines. But then that rather sums up the negative side of this performance.

Bromley were by far the better team, playing by far the better football, but their lack of clinical finishing made the afternoon much harder than it needed to be. A better team probably would’ve punished them. In fact, Fylde almost did. If the Coasters had been a bit more ruthless with their opportunities, they could’ve nicked a point. Or more.

Dropped points would’ve been very harsh on the Ravens. As Andy Woodman notes in his post-match comments, Bromley played some of their best football of the season in the first half. But when you earn the right to play, you have to make it count.

So what of our young Raven watching his first game? What would he have made of it all?

Even if the specifics of the match quickly fade from memory, the tense buzz of holding a 1-0 lead into injury time, and the collective relief at the final whistle, is something a multi-goal walk-in-the-park can’t match.

Of course we want goals when we watch a game of football, but we also want drama; heroes and villains; flash and valour. It wasn’t perfect, but this game had all of that, and it kept you guessing until the last minute. 

We think we hate that kind of tension, but it’s actually the addictive secret sauce that brings us back to the stadium time and again. And you can’t beat watching your hometown team play like they mean it.

Enjoy the secret sauce, little man. See you again soon.

Match ratings

Grant Smith - 7

Besart Topalloj - 7

Josh Passley - 8

Lewis Leigh - 8

Deji Elerewe - 9

Callum Reynolds - 7

Byron Webster - 7

Corey Whitely - 8

James Vennings (off for Krauhaus 81 mins) - 7

Louis Dennis (off for Olomola 67 mins) - 6.5

Michael Cheek - 6.5

Subs:

Ben Krauhaus (on for Vennings 81) - N/A

Olufela Olomola (on for Dennis) - 6.5

Sam Woods - unused 

Kido Taylor-Hart - unused

Todd Miller - unused

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

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

All articles are edited by Peter Etherington. He also wrote this article - you can link to him here

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