Colchester United 1-1 Bromley

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Sep 08, 2024

There aren’t many games in League Two that Bromley can class as local. Given the dearth of options on that front, perhaps it was no surprise to see 607 fans make the trip to Colchester to cheer on their League Two new boys.

Across the 90 minutes, they witnessed Bromley showing everything that makes them who they are as a football club: Fit, strong, up for the scrap, with a 20-goal-a-season striker as their figurehead. You can never write Bromley out of a contest. They may have been under severe pressure in the second half, but the Ravens were well worth their point.

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

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

The team vs Colchester United

The Good

It was always going to be a big call from Andy Woodman to change the system and go with two out-and-out strikers for the first time this season.

He made that call and it worked for at least 60 minutes.

The interchange between the two caused a constant problem for Colchester’s backline, who were pressed and harried into errors. It was one such error that led to the opening goal, with Dinanga seizing on a defensive mistake before being fouled in the penalty area. Cheek calmly dispatched the resulting spot kick, as he tends to do.

I guess the old adage is true that strikers need goals for confidence. Confident Dinanga is the player Woodman signed from Gateshead. Long may it continue.

Elsewhere on the field, following on from Tuesday night's cup match with Cambridge, Woodman also made the call to stick with Idris Odutayo at LCB and Besart Topalloj at LWB. I liked the look of it again.

The defensive five looked instinctively comfortable with right-footed RWB Danny Imray dovetailing with right-footed RCB Kamarl Grant and left-footed LWB Besart Topalloj dovetailing with left-footed LCB Idris Odutayo.

This set-up, and the balance it provides, is a natural fit. I don’t think it is a coincidence that Bromley played some of their best stuff this season when four of their back five (sorry, Byron!) were so comfortable rampaging forward with the ball.

A little shout-out for the goalkeepers, too, as both Grant Smith and Matt Macey made important saves to keep their sides in the game. Andy Woodman thought Grant Smith was the best goalkeeper in the National League, and he was probably right, but you can tell there is an upgrade in quality at this level.

Teams also have strength in depth between the sticks. Colchester, for example, have two former Arsenal keepers in Matt Macey and Tom Smith, both of whom worked with Andy Woodman during their time with the Gunners. Tom Smith of course had a good loan spell with Bromley in 2022.

In terms of Colchester’s XI, I thought the stand-out player was Jack Payne. In fact, he was the stand-out player on the pitch. Everything Colchester did well came through him.

Payne is clearly the player that makes them tick offensively; he never stopped pushing and probing with possession. When Owura Edwards came on, he offered the U’s fresh attacking dimension, and it was no surprise to see Payne supply Edwards for the equalising goal.

Off the pitch, I was impressed with the atmosphere in the ground. It seems wherever the Cowleys go, they galvanise their host town or city. In all, just over 4800 fans filed into Colchester’s 10,000-seater stadium, but the noise they created made it sound like a full house. Kudos to the club for what they’ve got going on over there.

However, I must also give kudos to Bromley’s travelling support. I didn’t think I’d ever see a day where Bromley took 600+ away to a ‘run of the mill’ league encounter. Some of us remember the days when 607 would be a great home attendance, and we’re only talking about 20 years ago.

This club continues to rise exponentially.

The Bad

I’ll look back at the Colchester leveller again in the highlights, but it seemed too easy for Owura Edwards to run in at the back post.

On first viewing, Danny Imray didn’t pick him up, handing Edwards a free run to half-volley into the net.

I don’t say this to blame Imray alone, but it does highlight that the attacking threat he offers is sometimes undermined by defensive naivety. We’re watching a promising young player on a learning curve. It is what it is. Balance, eh?

For the last 25 minutes of the game, Bromley were under the cosh. I wouldn’t go as far as saying they invited pressure, but they couldn’t get out for significant stretches of the second half.

Colchester certainly seized the initiative, and a lot of that was down to them using their full allocation of five subs in the three batches, alongside a tactical tweak or two.

It made a critical difference.

Bromley on the other hand only made three subs, with Callum Reynolds entering the fray in the final minute of the game. I had no problem with any of the substitutions as there was logic to each of them. The question is whether Bromley should be making more changes at this level.

You might say: ‘Machel, there’s no point making changes for the sake of it.’ While you’re right, that raises another question: Did Bromley have the bench depth to make five changes and re-seize the initiative?

If your answer to that question is ‘yes’, then what changes would you have made if you were in Andy’s shoes?

For me, even with the benefit of hindsight, I don’t think there was a way to redress the balance with the subs available. If you can give me a tide-turning tactical switch that Woodman could have made, I’ll give you a bonus prize. Get at me in the comments section.

Either way, as Andy and his coaching staff will probably admit, the level of managerial nous has risen tangibly in League Two. This season, Bromley will have to find answers to clever mid-game tactical tweaks and game-winning quality coming off the opposition bench. Earning a result with sufferball alone will become increasingly rare.

The learning curve continues.

The Ugly

This is the first League Two game I’ve seen this season where the refereeing was overly officious and subpar. Neither set of fans or managers were impressed.

The man in the middle needlessly disrupted the flow of the game and, in some cases, simply got big decisions wrong.

The tone was set when he booked Besart Topalloj within 90 seconds of the game kicking off. This had all the hallmarks of a referee marking their territory.

The problem with that approach is that it makes your follow-on decisions critical. With the precedent set, teams start asking for yellow cards for innocuous fouls. If those cards don’t come, the game turns tetchy on and off the pitch and it becomes too hard for the referee to regain control.

Six yellow cards and one red tell their own story.

When you watch the extended highlights, if the editing includes some of the major incidents, you decide if the referee got the big calls right.

What was your view on the game? Join me in the comments section.

Match ratings

Grant Smith (8)

Kamarl Grant (8)

Byron Webster (8)

Idris Odutayo (8)

Danny Imray (7)

Ashley Charles (7)

Jude Arthurs (6)

Besart Topalloj (7)

Corey Whitely (7)

Marcus Dinanga (7)

Michael Cheek (8)

Subs:

Callum Reynolds for Corey Whitely 90+7’ (n/a)

Ben Thompson for Jude Arthurs 71’ (6)

Levi Amantchi for Marcus Dinanga 68’ (6)

From Bromley with love

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