Crewe Alexandra 4-1 Bromley
The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
The run was always going to come to an end, and Crewe seemed the most likely to inflict the blow.
That said, no one would have expected Bromley to serve up their worst performance of the season in the process.
Tired bodies and tired minds?
Join me as I reflect on The Good, The Bad and The Ugly from the 4-1 away defeat at Crewe Alexandra.
Have a read and let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
The team vs Crewe Alexandra
The Good
Michael Cheek scored his 13th league goal of the season. Frankly, that’s where The Good begins and ends.
That isn’t hyperbole, Bromley’s performance was that bad. Everyone seemed off it.
Crewe, to their credit, showed why they are in the automatic promotion hunt.
Even before the first goal, they had made the majority of the running. And once they got the go-ahead goal, they let their football do the talking.
As with the reverse fixture at Hayes Lane, I thought Jake Lankester put in a special shift. Bromley never got to grips with anything Crewe were doing and they certainly failed to get to grips with him.
Crewe continually zipped the ball around, and Bromley didn’t have the dynamism to adapt to it over the course of the 90 minutes.
I thought they were good at Hayes Lane when they won 2-1, but this was special from them. They were levels above.
The Railwaymen move up to second in the league and few would bet against them being involved in the promotion race in the final stages of the season.
Good luck to them.
The Bad
The first goal had a bone of contention about it. Callum Reynolds went down injured after landing awkwardly after winning a header, but the ref didn’t stop play as it wasn’t a head injury. Frustrating, but understandable.
However, prior to that incident, a Crewe defender had gone through the back of Michael Cheek, prompting a passionate protest from Andy Woodman that earned him a yellow card.
Bromley still could (and should) have done better at defending the goal from that moment on, but did Andy have a point about the referee not blowing his whistle for the foul?
I certainly think Andy has a point about the lack of refereeing consistency within games. This isn’t about the big decisions for me, more the nitty gritty. Specifically, once you lay your marker, stick to it.
You can be over-officious, for example, but be consistently over-officious.
That aside, there were a few other moments that deserve an entry in The Bad.
Bromley got called on foul throws four times, or possibly even five. There are few things that fans can claim to be better at than players, but I reckon foul throws at this level are unforgivable. They’re the most Sunday League of footballing transgressions, and in many ways, it summed up Bromley’s shoddy performance.
To compound matters, when Bromley momentarily got back in the game from the penalty spot, they promptly conceded again two minutes later.
The game was done and dusted at that point. There was no way Crewe were going to let Bromley back in the game a second time.
The Ugly
Bromley were the sloppiest I’ve seen them in a LONG time. It’s hindsight to blame it on the lack of rotation, but I felt they looked leggy. On a heavy pitch, once they went a goal behind, they were always struggling to find a way back.
Yes, Bromley are the side with the worst possession stats in the league, but they were the architects of their own downfall on this occasion. No more was this epitomised than the third goal.
Under no pressure, Kamarl Grant gave the ball away. Within seven seconds, it was in the back of the net to restore Crewe’s two-goal advantage.
As I alluded to in my match preview, this game was always going to be a tough test, but I didn’t expect Bromley to make it so easy for Crewe. Frankly, they don’t need help to dominate sides, so handing them the advantage time and time again was asking for trouble.
Bromley were pulled all over the place and were constantly out of shape when the ball was turned over. At times, it felt like they were running through treacle.
This isn’t specific to any one player, either. No one can say they came out of that game with any real credit.
The funny thing is, this defeat was possibly the best thing that could have happened to Bromley. The side have overachieved with the 12-match unbeaten run and there was a danger that some might get the idea that reinforcements weren’t necessary. Think again.
This was another one of those games where I looked at the bench options and couldn’t see how Andy could change things, even if he wanted to chase the game.
In the end, Andy pretty much admitted defeat when both Danny Imray and Michael Cheek were removed with 20 minutes remaining. Bromley simply don’t have the game-changers on the bench to remove those two and get rewards.
I can only assume that at that juncture he was thinking about Newcastle United on Sunday.
To add to the misery, Kamarl Grant received his marching orders in the final ten minutes.
He can have no complaints either as the first yellow was for dissent and the second was a stonewall yellow.
Does he now miss the FA Cup tie at Newcastle United, if so it will pose a very interesting selection dilemma for Andy Woodman.
All in all, it was a terrible day at the office for Bromley. However, the team have suffered so few bad defeats under Andy Woodman that sometimes you just have to chalk it up to tired minds and legs and keep it moving.
This was, after all, only Bromley’s 26th defeat in their last 116 league matches. Perspective is a good thing.
Over to you. What did you make of this outing?
Match ratings
Grant Smith (5)
Danny Imray (4)
Kamarl Grant (4)
Omar Sowunmi (5)
Callum Reynolds (5)
Idris Odutayo (5)
Jude Arthurs (5)
Ben Thompson (5)
Corey Whitely (5)
Louis Dennis (5)
Michael Cheek (6)
Subs:
Josh Passley for Danny Imray 68’ (6)
Cameron Congreve for Louis Dennis 59’ (5)
Olufela Olomola for Michael Cheek 68’ (5)
Levi Amantchi for Callum Reynolds 46’ (5)
Byron Webster for Corey Whitely 84’ (n/a)
Thanks for taking the time to read the match synopsis above.
Please note all match photographs in this article are by Martin Greig - please follow him on Twitter here
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The score line says it all really, but the ever so polite post match interviews don’t tell us much at all. AW’s criticisms were pretty obvious really so why is he rarely asked any off piste questions. I’m sure I’m not the only one who would like to know if Imray is going to Wycombe, if Grant is going to miss the Newcastle trip, is young Thomas on his bike back to Swansea, will the generally more talented Leigh and Congreve have to sit on the bench at St James’s Park next Sunday, and is Johnny Williams coming in on loan from Gillingham? And last but not least, how much of that £200,000 plus the club will pocket from our fairytale trip up North will be spent on reinforcements or the new stand?