Bromley 1-1 Maidenhead United
The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
Four draws in a row. One defeat in eleven games. How do you assess that?
Maybe a starker way of looking at it is that we have gained just 16 points from the last 33 available. Is that playoff form? No. Are Bromley still in the playoff mix? Yes.
Seventeen games remain in the National League season. While it’s best to avoid making grand proclamations after each match, Bromley certainly have a fight on their hands if they want to feature in the postseason.
They’re scrapping away and keeping themselves in the conversation for now, but will that resilience pay off at the season’s end?
As ever, I reflect on The Good, The Bad and The Ugly from Bromley’s 1-1 draw at home to Maidenhead United.
Have a read and let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
The Line-up vs Maidenhead United
The Good
That’s now seven league matches where Bromley have rescued points from the jaws of defeat. While some will see this as dropped points and dropped points only, I think there’s a bit more nuance to it than that.
While we seem to lack the quality to turn more 1s into 3s, we have the resilience to persevere, even when we don’t really deserve anything on the day.
Part of that resilience is down to Louis Dennis and his magic. It wasn’t a vintage day for the attacking forward, but, for the sixth time this season, his goal was all-important for Bromley.
To put it another way, 11 of Bromley’s 41 points this season are due to timely interventions from Louis.
His record of 18 appearances, 11 starts, and 6 goals, highlights how valuable he’s been in what isn’t even a particularly great season for him.
Besides Louis Dennis doing what Louis Dennis does, there was little else to get excited about in this Bromley performance.
That said, the three substitutes all made a difference and helped breathe life into a listless performance. Omar Sowunmi added height and strength to the backline and at set pieces, Mitchel Bergkamp added forward thrust and technical skill in the middle of the park, and Harry Forster helped stretch the pitch and force Maidenhead United to consider something different.
If Bromley can get their selection right and begin games how they’ve ended the last three home games, then maybe one point will become three sooner rather than later.
The Bad
I spoke to Andy Woodman at full time and he told me the formation was supposed to be 4-3-3.
If it was, then the performance was one of the worst interpretations of that shape I’ve seen in a long time. It was so disjointed that I assumed they were playing 4-1-3-2, leaving Vennings on his own to fight a losing battle in midfield.
If it was 4-3-3 as Andy insists, I dare anyone to tell me who was playing where.
Bromley have a knack for fighting back to ‘gain’ points, but there’s no escaping the fact that this run of draws is likely to hurt Bromley, particularly if it continues.
Bromley have only lost eight games this season, joint seventh lowest in the league. However, their tally of eleven draws is the second highest in the league.
With Notts County, Wrexham, Chesterfield, and Boreham Wood (four of the top seven) yet to visit Hayes Lane, it puts pressure on the Ravens to win some very difficult games.
As with other matches recently, Maidenhead’s full-blooded approach highlighted how much we miss a player like Ethan Coleman.
Once it became clear we were going to get bullied by Alan Devonshire’s side (‘twas ever thus) the lack of depth in our squad became apparent. Who could Andy Woodman turn to on his bench to redress the balance?
Coleman was a replacement for Trotter at the start of the season and arguably this is now the biggest hole in the side. To me, a robust ‘enforcer’ for the scrappy games feels like the missing piece of the puzzle.
Maidenhead won't be the last side to rough us up and out-work us this season. Woodman is going to have to be very creative in how he wheels and deals to plug the gaps.
I spoke with Andy post match to get his reflections on the game - have a listen to the recording below before you move on
The Ugly
This isn’t the first game in recent times where Bromley have looked ponderous in possession. It was something I noticed away at Scunthorpe and at home against Dagenham & Redbridge.
In the last three games, we haven’t been press-resistant in possession. As a result, we’ve been too easily penned in and harried off the ball, and we’ve been bullied into unforced errors.
This is as much to do with not passing with purpose as it is with sloppy decision-making.
Andy Woodman alluded to this in his post-match comments when he mentioned the team trying to score pretty goals instead of securing the basics. Maybe we’ve gone too far the other way and have forgotten the fundamentals of National League football.
Rule one of those fundamentals is winning the physical battle. Only then will you earn the right to do your stuff.
No National League side will turn up and just let you pop it around them (unless you’re a superior side like Notts County who can play around you and in between the lines). Most sides, if they suspect that’s your game plan, will simply defend in banks of four and close down your channels and your options.
If any side in the league are prime exponents of this mentality it’s Devonshire’s Maidenhead. They almost seem to feed off it, and I suspect it’s why they so often upset the big boys.
The bottom line is that Saturday was the worst of the three recent games because, until Omar’s long-range shot in the 82nd minute, we failed to create anything meaningful. It was woeful stuff. We truly stank out the gaff.
Our promising football, when it finally arrived, only occurred when Bromley changed to a 3-5-2 formation. Which begs the question: Was that a better way to set up for a robust clash with Maidenhead?
That can be debated long into the night, but what is incontrovertible is that too many players had stinkers (see ratings below). Irrespective of shape or formation, no side can carry that many players.
This leads me to Corey Whitely. I wonder if he’s the biggest loser in our change of shape?
I was exasperated with him at Scunthorpe and felt similarly against Maidenhead. Is he getting at his opposing full-back enough or is he playing handbrake football?
“What’s handbrake football?” I hear you ask. Instead of driving forward with the ball and efficiently linking play, a player with the handbrake on will check back and play an easy pass. We’ve seen too much of that from Corey of late.
On a good day, Corey has the ability to do whatever he wants. But, for whatever reason, it hasn’t been coming off for him recently. He doesn’t look up to speed and his interlinking is suffering for it.
We don’t play wingbacks anymore, or certainly don’t from the start, but if we ever go back to that system, I need to see Corey back in that position. Let him carry the ball from deep. I suspect we’ll get more out of him that way.
Get at me in the comments below.
Match ratings
Reice Charles-Cook (7)
Kellen Fisher (6)
Byron Webster (6)
Omar Sowunmi (7)
Besart Topalloj (7)
James Vennings (5)
Jude Arthurs (5)
Corey Whitely (5)
Louis Dennis (7)
Michael Cheek (6)
Charley Kendall (5)
Subs:
Omar Sowunmi for Callum Reynolds 61 (7)
Harry Forster for Kellen Fisher 61 (7)
Mitchel Bergkamp for Jude Arthurs 70 (7)
For those who are interested, I have also included my interview with Maidenhead United assistant manager Ryan Peters - always worth seeing how the opposition viewed a match as well
Editor’s Footnote
What a snooze-fest! (The game, not Machel’s review).
Flat atmosphere, flat football, and a flat cap on Devonshire’s head. We’ve seen it all before; Bromley just can’t seem to outwit the West Ham legend’s strong-armed sides. Fair play to them. They worked hard to frustrate the Ravens, forcing sideways passes and hit-and-hope balls, and they calmly went about the dark arts.
Speaking of, and forgive the whiff of sour grapes, but during the corner that led to Maidenhead’s goal, Byron Webster was having his shirt so violently pulled that I could see it from the other end of the pitch. The referee and his assistant couldn’t have missed it but chose to ignore it. 1-0.
Byron was rightly furious at the injustice and he wasn’t going down quietly. The referee had an earful of northern soul for minutes afterwards, earning Byron a yellow card to add to Bromley’s growing collection. I’ve never seen Webster lose his cool like that, he doesn’t seem the type. I think that tells you everything.
On a different matter entirely, Berkamp’s worth a start, isn’t he?
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 you can link to him here
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Agree most of what you say but there has been a number of issues in Webster,s performance and I cannot agree a 6. He has given away unnecessary free kicks resulting in goals in recent games and his distribution has been poor .
Well it depends on whether we can get an ' all action midfield player' assuming we can and he can get at least a week training with the squad I would put him in with Bingham if fit. Not sure it will be Vennings type of game. I might even put in Forster for Kendall and play 1 up front and Sowunmi ahead of Reynolds for me. I am not sure you can fit Bergkamp in unless he plays ahead of Forster then you lose width. Changes have to be made we are stalling at the moment. If things don't come off you can change things up at Half-Time. Sounds simple being a virtual Football Manager😆 but at least let's hope we give it a go!