Bromley 5-2 Newport County

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Only two teams in League Two have lost fewer games than Bromley this season.

Keen observers will remember that on their way to promotion last season, the Ravens lost the fewest games of any team in the National League, earmarking themselves as an extremely tough nut to crack.

In fact, in Andy Woodman’s last 113 League games across the National League and League Two, Bromley have only lost 25 games. That’s a stunning piece of data.

Do Bromley fans know how good they’ve got it?

Join me once again as I reflect on The Good, The Bad and The Ugly from Bromley’s 5-2 home win over Newport County. And look out for a one-off message.

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

The team vs Newport County

The Good

Home and away, Bromley seem to have found a way of playing more effectively against the league’s more sluggish performers.

In recent games, where Bromley have seemed like slight favourites, they have opted for a more attacking setup.

The key change is the decision to push Imray, Congreve, and Whitely further forward, which has led to less dependency on Michael Cheek to score crucial goals.

In Bromley’s last five games, they have scored eleven goals. Cheek has only scored three of them and that’s not a bad thing.

As Andy Woodman has reiterated, being hard to beat is one thing, but to win games you need to get attacking talent on the ball in the final third. Work on the training ground has improved this element of Bromley’s game, and fans have seen the benefit in the month of December.

Most notable for me is the uptick in threatening contributions from Cameron Congreve. This was particularly evident in the first half against Newport. I would like to see him add more goals to his game, but when he plays like he did on Boxing Day, he offers a threat from all angles.

This is before we consider the dual threat that Idris Odutayo and Kamarl Grant are bringing down the flanks. Hats-off to both of them.

After the Morecambe game on Saturday, I wrote about the savvy Ben Thompson brings to proceedings in the middle of the park. We saw the same again in the win over Newport.

He rightly won the Man of the Match award and capped his performance with a fantastic free-kick goal.

The Thompson-Arthurs midfield partnership is, in my view, the most underrated aspect of this Bromley team. Because they aren’t seen as technical masters, a lot of their dirty work goes unnoticed. However, they are as integral to the way the side plays as anyone else.

Less is more where football is concerned. Arthurs and Thompson epitomise how to dovetail and work in tandem while accentuating their positives. Rarely are they guilty of over-playing.

Lastly, a word for our set pieces. A good friend of mine remarked at Morecambe that he found it baffling that Bromley didn’t cause more havoc from set pieces.

Andy has been clear that his coaching staff are working hard to improve this aspect of Bromley’s game, and against Newport, we finally witnessed the havoc. Bromley bullied their opposition at every set piece, yielding three goals across the match.

I don’t have the data to confirm how many goals Bromley have scored from set pieces this season, but when you possess an aerial threat like Omar Sowunmi and Michael Cheek, to name but two, this seems like a piece of weaponry that the Ravens could wield to more advantage.

As for Newport County. I found their defending at set pieces criminal and they were too much of a soft touch in the physical part of the game as a whole.

Newport want to be a possession-based team that passes and moves the ball well, and we saw that with their two consolation goals, but you have to earn the right to participate in the game before you commit yourself to your style of play.

Against Bromley, Newport lost the physical battle and were 4-0 down before they truly came to the party.

When they finally turned up (and took advantage of Bromley switching off), Bobby Kamwa showed some good stuff, and Kai Whitmore added a bit of quality, but it was a performance to forget for the team as a whole.

Their record this season suggests Newport don’t need to worry about going down, but this was a very bad performance that they will want to expel from their system as soon as possible. Though Sunday’s game away at league-leaders Walsall is likely to offer another stern test.

The Bad

It’s just as well Bromley conceded two goals after going 4-0 up as it gave me something to write about here.

As Andy Woodman said at full-time, Bromley are so unused to being 4-0 up that it was perhaps inevitable that they dropped their standards and switched off.

That said, it was unacceptable. After the second went in, there were nerves in the stands that Newport could go on to score yet another.

Bromley regained their composure eventually, and even had time to score a fifth to add some deserved gloss to their overall dominance, but it was an important passage of play.

Bromley will face much sterner tests than Newport County during the remainder of the season. Let’s just say, for argument's sake, that Bromley are considering an unlikely promotion push. These are the fine margins that will decide how they fare.

Give better teams a lifeline like that and they won’t just score two goals, if you catch my drift.

Finally, post-match, I meant to ask Andy Woodman about Kamarl Grant. If I understand correctly, his loan expires in early January.

Are we allowed to loan him again or extend the loan? How do the EFL rules work on this?

I wonder if Millwall would be open to letting him go permanently, like Charlton did with Deji Elerewe and Millwall did with Bes Topallaj?

Watch this space, I guess.

The Plug-ly

As I don’t have anything ugly to write this week, I’ll use this space for a shameless plug.

Since From Bromley with Love was created on 18^th July 2022, the Substack has grown well and has become slightly more than a labour of love.

Today, there are 490 subscribers and the writing has garnered 85,000 views in the calendar year (from a total of 96 articles). That’s just shy of the capacity of Wembley Stadium dropping by for a read.

Given Bromley’s average attendance is in the region of 2800 (without away fans added), 500 subscribers seems like a decent readership. And I maintain there is no better coverage of Bromley anywhere in the known universe. But this is a club on the grow and I want From Bromley with Love to grow with it. So…

Ahead of 2025, I’m reaching out to you for ideas. How do I take things up a notch with the Substack and YouTube channel?

Your source of independent Bromley FC coverage is mostly a two-man operation, consisting of myself and the copy editor extraordinaire Peter Etherington (editor’s note: sentence not edited).

We’ve had fantastic contributions from long-suffering fan Colin Head and club photographer Martin Greig, whose outstanding images add magic to every article. And here’s a shout-out to everyone who has submitted an article or got involved in the comments section. It all matters.

But can this be something more? Something better?

The door is wide open for your ideas and contributions, so get in touch.

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The goal has always been to have the channels pay their way, covering the cost of the time, effort, and equipment it takes to make the content. That goal is entirely achievable, but From Bromley with Love needs a little help from its friends.

Here are three simple things you can do to help it thrive.

• Sponsorship. Know a local business open to sponsoring some content? Get in touch.

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There has never been a better time to get involved, so jump in and share your thoughts.

Match ratings

Grant Smith (7)

Kamarl Grant (8)

Omar Sowunmi (9)

Callum Reynolds (9)

Idris Odutayo (7)

Jude Arthurs (8)

Ben Thompson (9)

Danny Imray (7)

Corey Whitely (7)

Cameron Congreve (8)

Michael Cheek (7)

Subs:

Levi Amantchi for Michael Cheek 77’ (6)

Lewis Leigh for Cameron Congreve 87’ (n/a)

Olufela Olomola for Corey Whitely 94’ (n/a)

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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 Scott Tweedy

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

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