Bromley Head Coach, Andy Woodman felt that their 3-0 pre-season friendly win over Crystal Palace was “a good competitive game”.
Victor Adeboyejo’s brace and Nicke Kabamba’s header saw Bromley clinically dispatch Palace in the second half after a goalless first half, with Woodman left pleased at the quality of both teams in the local pre-season friendly derby as he spoke to Bromley’s YouTube channel post match.
“Thought it was a good competitive game because there sometimes pre-season games can be a little bit stout and a little bit sort of exhibitionist, but brilliant tempo to the game. Some good work out of possession for us and some good work in possession for us.
“The result is lovely, but it’s irrelevant. It really is as we know. But I think there’s a lot of positives out there and I think again hopefully people just on that little brief match today can see what we’re going to be and what we’re going to be about and hopefully we can just keep building on that.
“I must say credit to Palace, they put a really good team out today and can’t thank them enough.”
Woodman however is aware that his team are still bonding following several new signings this summer, including Richard Taylor whose loan move from Bolton was announced on the morning although he didn’t participate in the friendly, with focus on peaking in their League One opener at Barnsley on 15 August.
“Look, it’s early and we got a lot of work to do still. We have, you know, we have and we can’t get sidetracked by this result or but there is some signs and some good partnerships coming together and look this is what preseason’s about. It’s all about peaking on the 14th.”
Adeboyejo and Kabamba drew praise for their goals from Woodman but he was more impressed at the clean sheet against last season’s Community Shield and UEFA Conference League title-winning club.
“Yeah, I think it’s always nice for the strikers and Nicke as well. Nicke scored. I think it’s you know always nice to see your strikers get off and score goals. Cheeky had a headed you know maybe another day would have scored. So so that’s encouraging and listen I can’t let it go without saying it. Clean sheets.
“That’s what I wanted from the boys said it before the game. So I’m actually I’ve just got I’m more happy about the clean sheet than the goals. So yeah, there was some good signs and Victor did well today.”
Woodman proceeded to praise Shamal George for his goalkeeping performance, but iterated that their defensive work is still in progress.
“You know, really good to see the goalkeeper make some big saves for us today. That was encouraging. And then to also see, you know, what we are, the DNA of us, blocks, people throwing their body on the line and really protecting the clean sheet with everything.
“And that’s the bit for me that’s not the most encouraging, but the bit I have to get right with the new players that have come in to join us to make sure they know what the DNA of us is and they seem to grasp it really really quickly.”
Despite having been without 12 senior players who had been involved at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Palace still fielded a strong team containing players like Walter Benitez, Will Hughes and Eddie Nketiah to name a few, which left Woodman pleased at the strength of his childhood team.
“Yeah, really good. Yeah, really good tempo, really good, you know, played in the right spirit. Palace, you know, are going away to Italy. So they got, you know, other things around the corner, a lot of players away, but it’s still, you know, it was good workout for them and look, I always got a lot of time for Crystal Palace.
“It’s my club I’ve grown up with. So, yeah, can’t thank them enough. And Steve Parish and all his staff, you know, fantastic and nice, you know, because we’ve had many years where we’ve wanted Crystal Palace down here and obviously we’ve had the uh the sort of artificial pitch and it’s been sort of a non starter.
“So, it’s really been nice to have our local club come down and play. And listen, we can’t not mention young Danny Imray playing out there today. Great to see him.”
Woodman was also pleased to see the fans back at the CopperJax Stadium as he quipped: “Yeah, nice to see the fans back out and nice to see a few smiling faces in the sunshine. So yeah, a good day all round.”
Bromley now turn their attention to a South London friendly derby on Tuesday 28 July as they host Millwall, which Woodman believes will be a more accurate reflection of his team’s current level.
“Yeah that’ll be with respect probably a little bit more of a realistic test for us. Which we want, you know, and I mean that with respect because that’s probably, you know, they’ll be probably at a different stage than Palace are at the moment with obviously Palace having international players away and probably getting ready for their tour.
“So that’ll be a probably a different game for us and again another local game, another club that we got lovely connections with. So they’ll be looking, you know, looking forward to that game.”
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