Bromley 2-0 Dorking Wanderers

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

One defeat in thirteen games. Seven games unbeaten. 

I’ve maintained a simple position all season: The key for clubs like Bromley is to keep themselves in the playoff conversation and time their run right.

The race for 6^th and 7^th is likely to go down to the final day of the season and, as it stands, Bromley are on course to mount a challenge. Andy Woodman and his players deserve a lot of credit for that.

As ever, I reflect on The Good, The Bad and The Ugly from Bromley’s 2-0 home win over Dorking Wanderers.

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

The Line-up vs Dorking Wanderers

The Good

As routine victories go, this was somewhere up there. It wasn’t entirely comfortable as it took a while for Bromley to get the go-ahead goal. Also, mid-way through the second half, there was a worrying sense that if Bromley didn’t get a second goal, Dorking would inevitably punish us. But we did and they didn’t. Job done.

Stats don’t lie. My tally showed that Dorking had no shots on target across the 90 mins. That speaks to Bromley’s ability to keep the Wanderers at arm's length. 

At the heart of that performance was one of the best debut performances I’ve seen from a Bromley signing in many a year.

Birmingham City’s Ryan Stirk was announced as a loan signing on Friday afternoon. A cursory glance at his resume reveals a player who played 35 games on loan in League Two last season for a Mansfield Town side that finished in the play-offs.

By all accounts, Mansfield wanted him on a permanent deal, but Birmingham priced him out of a move.

Mansfield’s loss is our gain as Stirk’s debut turned many a head. Some players just ooze quality and Stirk was that and then some. 

Nominally, people will have him down as a midfield destroyer (for those of a certain vintage, think David Batty), but there’s clearly so much more to his game.

What he did for Bromley, and what stood out for me, was his ability to make the right decision at the right time: whether that be breaking up play, pressing, recycling the ball quickly, or pinging a cross-field ball.

A good friend of mine supports Leyton Orient and we often discuss what the difference is between the top of League Two and the top of the National League. He pinpoints quicker decision-making as a key factor.

For me, Stirk personified that. He played the game at a different pace than everyone else on the pitch. 

Away from that, Omar Sowunmi continued to see his stock rise. We are some way out from voting for Player of the Season but Omar is likely to be the anointed one for a lot of fans.

Not only does he have seven goals from centre-back, he rarely has a poor game. Sign him up! (More on that later).

Lastly, a special mention for Charley Kendall. The jury is still out for me if we are completely playing to his strengths, but I have no doubt that he’s an upgrade on George Alexander. 

Charley is willing to do the dirty work of running channels and trying to stretch the backline. Do that often enough and you’ll find yourself in dangerous positions and with chances to score. The question then is whether you can finish. He answered that question against Dorking.

I will continue to monitor him closely, but one goal in three starts will do nicely for now.

The Bad

This will seem harsh, as the point of these articles isn’t to dig out any one player in particular, but sometimes I have to hand out constructive criticism. 

In my honest opinion, Besart Topalloj had his worst performance since joining the club. He just looked off it and, for at least two-thirds of the match, seemed to come off second-best in his duels. 

Dorking played Matt Briggs opposite him and the Wands’ winger had the beating of Topalloj for most of the game. Surprisingly, Dorking opted to take Briggs off midway through the second half. This coincided with Topalloj’s performance improving.

I would be intrigued to know if this was something that the bench spotted. And how about the fans on the terraces? Do you make me right or wrong on this one?

With Cameron Green now in the squad, it will put pressure on Topalloj to maintain his normally high standards. That can only be a good thing.

He’s had a fantastic start to his Bromley career, but blips are to be expected. Now we will see how he reacts to knowing he isn’t guaranteed to start every game.

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

As alluded to earlier, we need to do whatever is necessary to keep Omar Sowunmi at the club.

Omar’s contract runs out in the summer and by now even the least astute Bromley fan will appreciate that he will likely have his share of suitors in the summer: at the top of this league or in League Two.

Omar is a League Two defender in all but name and we were lucky to snare him last season. If RSG is serious about getting out of this league one day, securing Omar’s services would be a great way of showing that.

Any side with aspirations of a play-off finish and possible promotion has to get its spine aligned. That means getting your retention business sorted early.

Looking at our current centre-backs, Byron Webster turns 36 next month, Callum Reynolds just turned 33, and Omar Sowunmi is 27. It is a no-brainer as to who should be prioritised out of those three.

Obviously, Omar and his agent will want to get the best deal they can, whether that be at Bromley or elsewhere, but Omar clearly likes playing at the club and he’s a fan favourite.

The question is: How much money is too much money for RSG? If you re-sign Omar, you make a statement of intent about what you’re trying to achieve. But if you let him go, you’re asking Andy Woodman to pull a miracle out of the hat and call in more favours.  

Let this be a litmus test of just how high Bromley’s aspirations fly.

Get at me in the comments below.

Match ratings

Reice Charles-Cook (8)

Kellen Fisher (7)

Callum Reynolds (8)

Omar Sowunmi (8)

Besart Topalloj (6)

Ryan Stirk (9)

Jude Arthurs (7)

Corey Whitely (7)

Louis Dennis (7)

Michael Cheek (6)

Charley Kendall (7)

Subs:

Adam Marriot for Michael Cheek 71 (6) 

Harry Forster for Charley Kendall 87  (6)

Mitchel Bergkamp for Louis Dennis 65 (6)

For those who are interested, I have also included my brief interview with Dorking Wanderers manager Marc White - always worth seeing how the opposition viewed a match as well

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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

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