Woodman Doesn’t Believe “there should be too much nerves” at Bromley

Bromley manager, Andy Woodman doesn’t believe that there “should be too much nerves” after their 2-1 victory over Accrington Stanley.

Michael Cheek’s penalty brace saw Woodman’s Ravens move four points clear at the League Two summit after their promotion rivals tripped up, as Cambridge and MK Dons played out a 1-1 draw whilst Swindon were held at home by Bristol Rovers and Notts County lost to Grimsby.

Accrington meanwhile finished a man down after Donald Love on his return from suspension was red carded for a 14th-minute stamp on Cheek, whilst Dave Abimbola headed in a first-half injury-time equaliser.

Woodman in his post-match interview was relieved that Bromley had ended their three-match streak of draws as he explained that he felt that there were nerves around the Copperjax Stadium, but believes that the club should feel more positive.

“I think that’s just what it’s about, you know. Um how we win, the way we win. It’s just about winning and um three points was needed. I could feel a little bit of nerves around the place. It’s now 16 unbeaten. I don’t think it should be too much nerves around this place. Lads have been brilliant.

“Um and it’s always difficult when a team goes down to ten men. It makes it harder. But I still think we had enough chances to win that game by another three or four. And credit to them. You know, they defended well. We haven’t cleaned the game up and finished off, but I never really felt we was any threat.”

Cheek’s brace ended his eight-match goal drought and Woodman praised the 34-year old forward for his attitude during his recent dip, as he instead praised the squad for embracing their promotion ambitions and controlling the game to its conclusion.

“Yeah, I mean look he’s been waiting for a goal for a couple of weeks as you can imagine but he never gets stressed about it and two good penalties put away and they’re important. You know, those moments were really important for us.

“Um but I like come back to these boys are everyone to a man and not just the ones playing, the group the ones supporting superb and that’s what we got here in the culture of this place, everyone’s pushing for the same goal and I think today you can see that in abundance, and at the end I felt we controlled it you know which is something we haven’t done before.

“You know we normally get a bit erratic and we want to go and get the third but sometimes you just got to control the game and take the sting right out of it. We’ve done that really professionally today.”

Woodman however felt that Love’s red card had made life harder for his team and wasn’t surprised at the manner of Abimbola’s equaliser.

“It doesn’t make it easier because  they sit everyone behind the ball even more and it sounds stupid but it’s harder, you know, it really becomes a until you get that breakthrough.

“Um you know so that is always a tricky one when someone gets sent off and then you know the only way I could see them score was by a long throw and or a corner, and then we didn’t deal with the build-up to the long throw particularly well and then they go and throw it in and just comes off his head and goes into a bizarre area and in.”

Abimbola’s equaliser also suited Woodman in terms of his half-time team talk as it allowed him to address small issues within their gameplay, which meant that he and the squad could take lessons from the game.

“Yeah, never nice to score but at least it gives me a chance to sort of clear a few things up at half time and sort a few things out. So that’s a positive on that and I just think that the response I mean I just thought we were on the front foot for the whole game.

“Um and uh you know some of the play we’ve done you know moved the ball around quite well at times and again I thought we had enough chances to win it quite comfortably but credit to them.

“I think we should take a lot away from them. They’ve really picked up you know this season and really done well and it was a tough game up there and they’re all going to be tough right the way in.”

Woodman also substituted Zech Medley for Idris Odutayo at the break which he explained was down to the need to attack more against the ten-men opposition.

“Bringing Idris on was a move that we felt we needed to make when Accrington went down to ten men. Um I think the shape worked particularly well today, but again it’s ten men. You got to question whether it worked against 11.

“But look, all of those guys know what’s at stake and they know what’s needed and they know we got to keep pushing and we got to keep putting the ball in danger. Keep pressure on the teams and we did that and listen it’s on to the next one now.”

Carl Jenkinson had made his first start of the season but was substituted for Ben Thompson at the break in a double change, which led Woodman to clarify that it was a tactical substitution.

“It was just more of a case of look they had gone down to 10 and Carl’s with respect is more of a defensive wing-back rather than an attacking one. And I just felt that it was a spare man that we needed to put an attacking wing-back on and Corey’s done that for us so many years  it just made sense.

“And then bring Tommo in the middle of the park who’s got goals in him. So that was really that that was and the same with Zech really. Zech’s more of a defensive left side and centre-half whereas Idris can play more of an attacking left side and centre-half and it was again you know pushing to make sure we got the win.”

Bromley now host Oldham on Tuesday 3 March after their clash was postponed on the first weekend of the calendar year due to a frozen pitch, but Woodman is wary of the Latics’ threat given their improved form with clean sheets in three of their last four matches.

“They’re flying at the moment, another clean sheet today. That’d be a tough game. Um so yeah listen it’s I think down to 12 games now. We’ve got to make sure we just worry about us. You know, everyone gets stressed and um nervous and all that matter. We’re bang on target for wherever we want to be and nothing’s changed our end in house.

“Nothing’s changed. So all the nerves and all the look at this result what can happen here? What we just got to worry about .”