Bromley Come from Behind to Beat Chelsea U21s in Pre-Season Friendly

Goals from Omar Sowunmi and Marcus Ifill saw Bromley come from behind to beat Chelsea Under-21s 2-1 in a pre-season friendly at Copperjax Stadium.

Ifill netted Bromley’s winner from a 44th-minute quick one-two move with Marcus Dinanga as the Ravens fought back from behind.

Ryan Kavuma-McQueen rifled Chelsea into a 27th-minute lead before Sowunmi headed Bromley level from a 23rd-minute corner.

Whilst half of the squad – including on-loan returnee winger, Ben Krauhaus – headed to Horsham for a simultaneous 3pm BST friendly, Andy Woodman fielded a strong line-up back at Copperjax Stadium.

The Ravens’ defensive fragility this pre-season however remained an issue as Chelsea exploited in the 17th minute through a neatly composed pass from McMahon for Kavuma-McQueen to finish low beyond Grant Smith.

Bromley however showed their gutsy spirit to hit back just six minutes later from a corner to the far left post which found Sowunmi to thump in the bullet-proof headed equaliser past Ted Curd’s reach.

Kavuma-McQueen however continued to pose an issue for Bromley’s defence throughout the first half as the 16-year-old forced Smith into a 42nd-minute save to keep his curled shot out of the top right corner.

Bromley punished that opportunity just two minutes later as Ifill played a quick one-two move with Dinanga into the box, before he slotted a low finish past Curd to turn the game around at half-time.

Chelsea though shocked Bromley with a 3-2 victory on their last visit to south-east London in September 2024 in the group stage of last season’s EFL Trophy, which gave them belief as they forced early second-half blocks from Smith and defender, Sam German.

Bromley eventually dug deep to see out the victory at home, whilst the team which visited Horsham grinded out a goalless draw with plenty of saves from a productive Sam Long whilst Kyle Cameron and Ben Krauhaus produced the Ravens’ best opportunities.

Woodman post-match explained in an interview with Bromley’s media team that the need to increase game time for all players was behind the decision to split the first team into two groups for this game and at Horsham.

“Well we need to get the players up to 90 minutes and if you sort of keep having two elevens in the same stadium, you can only get 45 minutes into both elevens. So I took the decision to send to send 11 down to get 75 minutes, 11 here to do 75 minutes.”

The result also marked the third time in four pre-season friendlies so far this summer where Bromley had come from behind to claim victory, having achieved the feats against Tottenham Under-21s and Lincoln City, albeit either side of a 2-1 loss to Rotherham in Albufeira, Portugal.

Woodman’s Ravens are next in action on Tuesday 22 July as they host Crystal Palace Under-21s at the Copperjax Stadium in a 7:45pm BST kick-off, with half of the first team squad featuring in that game whilst the other half head to Tonbridge Angels in a repeat of the split squad strategy.

Bromley conclude their pre-season at home to Millwall on Saturday 26 July (3pm) with Woodman explaining in his post-match interview that it will be “every man for himself” in terms of selection for that game, as he looks to pull “the shape of the squad” together ready for the season.

 

Teams

Bromley: Grant Smith (Trialist B 75′), Sam German, Omar Sowunmi (Przbylo 75′), Byron Webster (Webster 75′), Brooklyn Ilunga (Trialist D 75′), Marcus Ifill (Paye 75′), Jude Arthurs (Penn 75′), Trialist A (Cockerill 83′), Ben Thompson (Trialist C 75′), Marcus Dinanga (Evans 63′), Nicke Kabamba (Patten 75′)

Substitutes; Trialist B, Trialist C, Dawid Przbylo, Brody Cockerill, Nathan Patten, Trialist D, George Penn, Trialist E, George Evans, Charlie Paye

Chelsea: Ted Curd, Genesis Antwi, Harrison Murray-Campbell, Olutayo Subuloye, Kian Best, Harrison McMahon, Leo Cardoso, Jimi Tauriainen, Shumaria Mheuka, Reggie Walsh, Ryan Kavuma-McQueen

Substitutes: Hudson Sans, Joseph Wheeler-Henry, Joseph Osagie, Calvin Diakite, Landon Emenolo, Oli Harrison, Yaya Idrissi, Frankie Runham, Sol Gordon, Harry McGlinchey, Chizzy Ezenwata