Bromley manager, Andy Woodman felt his Ravens were not “at the races,” in their 2-1 defeat at Cambridge United.
First-half goals from Shayne Lavery and Kylian Kouassi saw Cambridge move above Bromley into eighth, despite Michael Cheek’s lobbed consolatory 50th-minute finish for the South-London team who dropped to 13th in the League Two table.
Woodman however was livid at the first half performance where his Ravens only managed a single shot on target, courtesy of Ben Thompson’s curled ninth-minute strike from a loose pass amongst Cambridge’s defence as he addressed their sloppiness in his post-match interview on Bromley’s YouTube channel.
“First half, we wasn’t at the races, was we? Let be honest, they run all over us. We couldn’t get a grip on anything and couldn’t win a header. Didn’t win a second ball. Um and uh their tempo was quick all over the pitch. We just couldn’t cope. Which was disappointing.”
Woodman consequently made four changes at half time which saw them build momentum in the second half until referee, Declan Bourne suffered a knee injury, which the 54-year-old believed killed their control of the match despite finishing as the stronger team.
“So we go 2-0 down and it’s an uphill battle then a little bit, isn’t it? You know and um we made four changes at half time. All men on physicality, bit of strength and we looked better, you know and um when you’re chasing two goals, it’s tough. It is tough.
“We got the first one, we had the momentum, and then unfortunately the ref got injured again and had to go off. So that’s third time this season, which I hope he’s all right. Um and that kind of lost a bit of momentum for us again. But we huffed and puffed. We just didn’t have enough quality in the end.
“And um you know we can look at the second half and say we had a go and that’s the positives but we didn’t really deserve much out of the game in my opinion.”
Woodman however iterated that he wished he could of swapped out the entire starting line-up as he put the result down to a lack of “physicality” to match Cambridge.
“Yeah I could have made 11. If I had 11 players, I’d have changed them. Um we just lacked physicality, let be honest, they were powerful all over the place and we it was just one of those games I thought first half, you know, it was a physical battle and we wasn’t competing and that’s why I made the changes.”
Omar Sowunmi gave away Cambridge’s first goal with a loose headed clearance which Lavery laid off for Kouassi, only to deflect the latter’s shot in himself, which left Woodman disappointed given that he had warned his team of Cambridge’s ability to keep set-pieces alive.
“Yeah we told the guys look we said we’ve shown them they don’t score from set pieces first contact but they keep it alive in there and that’s exactly what they did. You know we know they keep it alive and not necessarily the first contacts the problem is the second contact and that’s what they did and uh credit to them.
“They do it well. And then we switched off from the throw-in for the second goal. I mean multi ball around the outside of the pitch. Fair play to Neil and his staff. They got that set up lovely. They know exactly what they’re doing with that. Um and they orchestrated well.
“Ball goes off, we switch off, throw their box, goal. You can’t do that. Um so there’s a bit of learning for us there. A little bit of street wise learning. And um yeah, we got to go again.”
The second half’s improvement though didn’t really impress Woodman in terms of at least snatching a draw as he felt that they lacked creativity to get a point, and praised Cambridge’s defensive effort to get their win.
“No, not enough. We didn’t really create enough really to get the second one and maybe a few scrambles might of pulled us through on another day, but um it wasn’t meant to be. I mean, they’ve dug in and rode out the storm with the extra time as well.”
Bromley now turn their focus to a home clash against MK Dons on 25 October at 3pm BST, with Woodman wary of the challenge that the Dons will pose.
“Yeah and that won’t be easy as we know. You know they’re a good outfit and a good team. So we’ve got a bit of work to do this week on the training pitch and make sure we’re ready for Saturday
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