Rampant Ravens go rolling on
NEIL SMITH saw his side overcome recent poor form to deservedly beat Dagenham & Redbridge and then declared: That’s my Bromley!
Leading at half-time courtesy of a Michael Cheek header, Bromley made the points safe with two goals in the final seven minutes from Luke Coulson and Josh Rees.
It means Daggers have now gone seven games without a win – a run that sees them sliding down the National League table.
But for Ravens boss Smith it was a satisfying afternoon as they end 2019 third in the table and two points off top.
“Today was all about my squad believing in each other and showing what they can really do,” Smith said.
“I changed the system today to allow Josh Rees more freedom and he was unbelievable. It was a more attacking set-up and allowed players to be direct with the ball and give (Michael) Cheek more support up front.
“I think we’ve recently lost focus of where we are and we’re no longer earning the right to win games. So today was also about being hard to beat and getting back to basics. I asked my defenders to focus on defending and that gave us the foundation to go on and win it.”
Bromley had to weather an early spell of pressure from the Daggers and, in truth, should have fallen behind on at least three different occasions.
On all occasions Reece Grant was the guilty party, first he was denied by a fine save from Ryan Huddart before he headed over Andrew Eleftheriou’s cross.
If those chances were unlucky, Grant should definitely have scored in the 23rd minute but he volleyed over from six yards out from Chike Kandi’s flick on.
Bromley slowly worked their way into the game and Joe Kizzi saw his header saved on the line by Elliot Justham. Coulson then volleyed wide and Justham pulled off a brilliant save to deny Rees on the goal-line.
With Bromley building up a head of steam, they took the lead on the cusp of half-time, Cheek guiding Coulson’s excellent cross into the net.
The second half was a more cagey affair although Dagenham failed to trouble Huddart.
Rees could have stretched the lead ten minutes after the restart but he headed Sam Wood’s cross inches wide.
Bromley made the game safe in the final ten minutes, however. The returning Reeco Hackett-Fairchild crossed for Coulson to volley home before Rees capped a brilliant display by heading in Coulson’s cross in the final minute.
Under-pressure Daggers manager Peter Taylor did not shy from his side’s predicament.
“I was pleased with our first half performance and we should have scored,” he said. “I was expecting a reaction to Bromley’s goal in the second half but we were poor and that made it look a very poor 90 minutes when that wasn’t the reality.”