WOODY’S REIGN IS OFF WITH THRILLER
THE Andy Woodman era got off to a thrilling start as his newlook Bromley came back from two goals down to rescue a point against Wealdstone.
Trailing to two early efforts from Ryan Gondoh and Connor Smith, Woodman’s Ravens pulled one back through captain Byron Webster before the National League’s top scorer Michael Cheek rescued a point with a strike 16 minutes from time.
“That was a real game of two halves,” remarked Woodman, who replaced Neil Smith in the Hayes Lane hot seat this week.
“We started poorly and gifted Wealdstone two goals by not winning second balls but in the second half there was only one team in it.
“My team showed what we can do. In truth we had enough chances to score three or four more goals. We showed good fight and that’s encouraging for future games.”
Starting in an unfamiliar 3-5-2 Bromley were immediately punished for a ponderous start when Gondoh skipped past a couple of challenges before curling beyond Mark Cousins from 22 yards.
Bad was to go to worse for on the next Wealdstone attack, Gondoh played in Dennon Lewis and the striker’s cross was deftly headed home by Connor Smith to double the lead.
Making his first major call as manager, Woodman then changed his side’s shape to 4-4-2 and with that Bromley posed a more lethal attacking threat.
Centre-back Webster reduced the arrears with a header from Liam Vincent’s corner and Ben Williamson should have equalised 10 minutes before half-time but he headed straight at Harvey Isted when it looked easier to score.
In the second half, it was all one-way traffic as chance after chance went begging. Cheek was the main culprit as twice he shot wide when well set in the penalty area.
Williamson then snatched at a golden opportunity placing his shot past the near post when the far post was the better option.
Vincent had an even better opportunity just past the hour mark, planting his free header wide from Liam Trotter’s cross.
However, Wealdstone were unable to hold out and Cheek equalised when he pounced on a poor defensive clearance.
Bromley continued to press for a winner but could not find a way past Isted as Wealdstone held on despite a late red card in injury time for Ashley Charles.
For Wealdstone assistant manager Matt Saunders, the point was no more than he felt his side deserved.
“We couldnt ask for any more from the lads, again we’ve gone in at half time ahead but failed to hold on which has been a bit of a pattern for our games, but the reality is we do lack a bit of quality at times and given the restrictions we have we can’t ask for anymore from the squad we have. Based on that, today is a really good point and result.”
STAR MAN: Liam Vincent (Bromley) ENTERTAINMENT: ★★★★★ REFEREE: Daniel Lamport