Bromley manager, Andy Woodman considers MK Dons to be “out and out favourites” against his team ahead of their League Two clash.
Woodman’s Ravens come into their home game on Saturday 25 October (3pm BST) against third-placed MK Dons off the back of a 2-1 loss at Cambridge, but the Dons have won their last four league matches although they didn’t beat Bromley in both meetings last season.
Woodman however has written off last season’s results and paid MK Dons a psychological compliment following their heavy investment in the summer transfer window, as he explained his view in Bromley’s pre-match preview.
“Yeah I think last year’s results mean nothing this year. I hate to say that. They’re a completely different animal, completely different beast. Um, they’ve spent absolute fortunes in comparison to where we are at. Um, and let be honest, they’re the out and out favourites for the game.
“You know they should be. They’ve got riches and players that we can’t even cope with in that respect.
“But I guarantee you one thing, we will be at it Saturday. Um, and we will make sure that we will do everything possible to get a result for this football club.”
Woodman also acknowledged the lacklustre defeat at Cambridge as he admitted that Neil Harris’ Us delivered “a job on us”, with their second-minute conceded goal having left the Ravens with a struggle even despite their second-half improvement and consolatory goal.
“Yeah exactly that. I think the first half they did a job on us. We weren’t ready. We conceded so early. It was just an uphill battle and we just couldn’t get to grips with them. Credit to them, disappointment from us as we hadn’t started like that and it completely threw us and caught us by surprise.
“Second half, I know people say it’s a game of two halves but obviously it’s easy to play when 2-0 down as weird as that sounds. When it’s 0-0 you have got to have the courage and the courageous to make decisions and do certain things on the pitch, but it was a better performance second half for sure.”
That game saw Woodman make a quadruple load of half-time substitutions but the 54-year-old has defended the four players who got hooked, as he reiterated that he wished he could of subbed the whole starting line-up.
“No, I’ve not had one player knocking my door, which is good. And look the four changes I made, I could of made 11 changes. So I don’t want people thinking the four changes were the ones that were ultimately the worst players on the pitch. They weren’t. I could of made 11 changes.
“Look that’s gone. That game’s gone. We’ve had learnings from it ourselves.”
Woodman now is keen to see his players take on board the lessons from that experience and kick on and ensure that even if they lose games, it is done in a respectable manner.
“Real learning. We’ve had a good week and we have got to move forward. You know we’ve got to get our heads around as a football club. We are going to lose games. And it’s the manner we lose them that’s the important thing.
“The first half manner we lost that game wasn’t acceptable. The second half manner of how we went about it, trying to win it back or get back into it, that’s more acceptable.
“So we’ve just got to make sure we keep learning on the job and keep making sure we keep progressing as a football club.”
The second-half response and more appropriate manner fed through into training as Woodman praised his players for their honesty.
“I’ve got a honest bunch of players and as a manager, you can’t ask for any more than that. We’ve got a group of players that don’t shy away from the situation. Sometimes they’re probably too honest sometimes. And Monday we were back in and we had a meeting like we always do.
“We discuss certain situations, criteria and what’s expected and what’s not expected or what we got right, what we got wrong. Um and then we’ve been at it all week.
“That doesn’t mean we’re going to get a result on Saturday. Doesn’t guarantee anything. But I know one thing that my players are giving me everything. Every day in training, every training session, every match and that’s what we’ve got to sometimes just accept.”
Defender, Carl Jenkinson is still recovering from a hip injury suffered in their final pre-season friendly against Millwall, and Woodman had a cryptic update on his progress, but praised the 33-year-old for his attitude.
“Jenko’s great. He’s got a target in his head which I won’t share with anybody, but that’s great. He’s got a target in his head of when he wants to be back on the pitch. If he meets that target, brilliant.
“Um, but Jenko’s the ultimate pro. If you give me a team of Carl Jenkins with the way he’s professional, the way he conducts himself, it’d be brilliant.”
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