RAVENS LATE SHOW IS SO TOUGH ON THE MAGPIES

BROMLEY netted twice in second half injury-time to salvage a point from a match they looked destined to lose at York Road.

For 89 minutes, Maidenhead United were excellent and deservedly led through well-taken goals from Adrian Clifton and youthteam product Josh Kelly.

But with the clock ticking past the 90 minute mark, Marc-Anthony Okoye was bundled over in the box for a penalty which substitute Frankie Sutherland tucked low to Carl Pentney’s right.

Suddenly the turnaround was on.

And less than a minute later, Roger Johnson won an aerial duel after the ball was pumped high into the Magpies area and it fell for Bromley’s standout player, George Porter, to sweep the ball home.

United began well with Nana Owusu testing David Gregory with a low shot in the second minute, while Porter scuffed an attempt into the hands of Pentney at the other end when he should have done better.

The Magpies went close again in the 27th minute when Rene Steer cut inside Okoye and flighted a curling shot a foot wide of David Gregory’s upright. Pentney did well to gather up Okoye’s downward header on the half-hour mark, before the Magpies struck decisively three minutes later when Kelly flicked the ball over his head for Clifton to lash a low left-footed shot beyond Gregory and in off the far post for his third of the season.

The Magpies’ defence confidently fielded a series of Bromley corners in the second half, with Junior Ogedi-Uzokwe heading narrowly wide from one of them in the 59th minute, but the points appeared to be sealed in the 62nd minute when Kelly announced himself to the National League with a strike of real quality. Collecting Clifton’s pass on the edge of the area he threw a couple of Bromley players with an impudent Cruyff turn before arrowing a shot into the roof of the net. That looked to be that but Bromley managed to ruffle the Magpies feathers and stole a point with a couple of injurytime strikes. Bromley boss Neil Smith admitted the Ravens had got out of jail: “We did (get lucky), but we did the same against Wrexham when we were 2-0 down so I had that belief in the players. First half I thought we were doing okay. Second half wasn’t us. I made the changes and the boys that came on helped that (result) come to fruition.” Sam Lock, Maidenhead’s assistant manager, said: “I thought performance-wise that was our best of the season. Obviously we didn’t get the result we deserved. “We got sucked into what they wanted which was a fight and we didn’t take control of the situation. But if we’re going to look at this pragmatically then the performance was very good.”