Bromley manager, Andy Woodman doesn’t think that the run-in will be “quite as straight forward” as anticipated in League Two.
Mitch Pinnock’s first goal for Bromley was cancelled out by Isaac Hutchinson in a 1-1 draw at home to Cheltenham on Tuesday evening (17 February), which left Woodman’s Ravens three points clear at the League Two summit after only Swindon won amongst the top-five placed clubs.
Woodman post-match described the team’s performance as “lax” but in his pre-match preview for their trip to Harrogate tomorrow (21 February), he felt that the results in midweek meant that there will be no simple run-in for every team so is anticipating a rollercoaster climax.
“Yeah, a little bit. Um, you know, because I think where we are these games, we’ve got to try and pick up maximum points. But we’ve also got to look at the other results in the league. That tells you that’s it’s not quite as straight forward as everyone thinks.
“Um, there’s clubs fighting for their lives, there’s clubs getting at the top of the table trying to get those points to get into the playoffs and to get into the automatic positions.
“So, you know, there’s going to be some sort of peaks and troughs from all the clubs right through the league and that’s just the nature of where we’re at this stage of the season.
“It’s the business end of the season. Um, but look, we’re still unbeaten at home. We’re still on a nice run and we go to Harrogate with all that intact.”
Defender, Omar Sowunmi returned from a shoulder injury in midweek and Woodman is pleased to have him back alongside January loanees, Zech Medley and Jesse Debrah who joined following Deji Elerewe’s move to Lincoln City.
“Yeah, amazing. I mean it was a blow losing Omar, particularly after we just lost Deji. Um so that was a bit of a blow to lose two centre-halves that have been fantastic. Um that said, the other two boys came in fresh training and have done a stellar job.”
“Um Omar’s injury was, you know, I thought it was going to be a lot longer than it is and he’s recovered and testatement to Omar, he wants to get out there and make sure he’s there for the team. So, um yeah, he’s back to full fitness now, which is great for us.”
Sowunmi’s return also means that there is competition for each starting spot across the entire Bromley squad, which has pleased Woodman who has Marcus Dinanga and Carl Jenkinson amongst reserves keeping up their fitness.
“We got competition all through the club now. You know, we got, let not forget, we got Marcus Dinanga as well who has featured and he scored a hat-trick in the reserve game the other day at Wycombe. So, that’s great for me and Marcus and Jenkinson played in that to make sure they’re keeping their fitness up to a level.
“Um, we’ve got fully fit squad, players all raring to go, everyone trying to get in the team and the squad, and that’s what you want at this stage of the season. So, you know, I’m blessed in that respect.”
He proceeded to speak of the importance of having cover in each position as he continued: “Absolutely and it can really destroy all the work you’ve done. It can really knock the wind out of yourselves.
“So, credit to the players, credit to the sports science team, the medical team with how we’ve gone about training and kept everyone right. So, uh, yeah, we’re in a good place in that respect.”
The draw against Cheltenham meant that Bromley are yet to lose a league match at home this season and are unbeaten in their last 14 matches, with Woodman happy at his squad’s approach of moving on to the next game at full time whistle of previous games.
“They’re good. They know, very much quickly to the next game. Um, and look, we’re not going to win every game at home. We haven’t done bad. You know we’ve got a pretty much unbeaten record at home. The only club in all the leagues. So I don’t think we should get too down and frown upon where we are with that record.
“And if we don’t win, we certainly don’t get beat and that’s credit to the team.”
Their next opponents, Harrogate are currently second-bottom and two points from safety so Woodman is expecting a tough test, but he lent support to their under-fire manager, Simon Weaver as he spoke of Weaver’s experience in relegation battles with the Sulphurites.
“And look, you know, give Simon Weaver his credit. He got promoted. He’s the longest serving manager. He’s probably been in this situation a couple of times with Harrogate. Um so if anyone’s going to work out how to get out of it, it’s going to be Simon Weaver.
“I know everyone goes ‘his family owns the club, etc., etc.’ You got to give the manager some credit here. He’s you know, this team he’s managed to keep up and get him out of difficult situations before and he’s on course to do that again at the moment.
“You know, a few weeks ago, he was dead and buried. Um, so this is going to be a tough game. I don’t look at this as like we’re going there, we’re going to roll them over. I look at this as this is going to be a hard fought match and it’s going to come down to margins again and like they always do and we just got to make sure the margins go our way.”
The match also sees Bromley return to the scene of their EFL debut and maiden victory on the opening weekend of last season in August 2024, which saw Michael Cheek and Kamarl Grant score on their EFL debuts in a 2-0 win.
Woodman though wasn’t keen to get drawn on their overall progress since that EFL debut result as he instead reflected on the memories of that day.
“Seems like a long time ago, it was a great day for the football club. Michael scoring his league debut so hopefully all those memories stuck in our heads and we have another great away day there. You know, it was a beautiful sunny day there so I’m not sure if it’ll be that.”