Bromley manager, Andy Woodman has praised his team for a “dogged, ugly,” maiden League One victory at Barnsley.
Victor Adeboyejo came off the bench to net a close-range 70th-minute winner from fellow substitute, Ethon Archer’s shot, which proved enough for Bromley to stun Barnsley at Oakwell to claim victory on their debut in League One and sit eighth in the table.
Woodman post-match spoke to BBC Sport London reporter, Ryan Matthews about how much the win meant to him given the motivational underdog mentality of “little Bromley” amongst the club and supporters alike
“No, it’s fantastic. You know no matter what league you’re in or where you are the first win of the season is important and for us little Bromley to come to Barnsley and you will say it a few times this year ‘little Bromley comes to Barnsley and get a result is fantastic.'”
He proceeded to praise the performance and fighting spirit as he continued: “Well I take away that it was very Bromleyesque. 1-0 away from home, clean sheet, dogged, ugly, not giving up any blade of grass, fighting for every ball.
“Everything that my finger at football is there to do. You know everyone gets caught up in this playing across the six-yard line and all of that. I don’t know any football fans that really enjoy that.
“I think that they love watching a team that gives everything they can on the pitch and if they lose, they go home and they know that the team’s given everything and that’s what I’ve been brought up on and certainly what I learned from being a coach at Newcastle United. And the team’s very much that.
“You give everything for the whole duration of the match and more and what’s I come away from today. The DNA of this football club is exactly as I want it.”
Bromley also are yet to concede in their opening league matches of a new season in the EFL, having won 2-0 at Harrogate in 2024 then drew 0-0 at Shrewsbury last season in League Two, so the 55-year-old is now chuffed to maintain that record.
“I like a clean sheet. That really is I’m more happy about that than with the result and they’re truly great for sure.”
Woodman also revealed to Matthews that he want to see oppositional teams show his Ravens respect when quizzed about his pre-match message to his players.
“Yeah I think everything you said is correct and it is 11 vs 11 and as long as we have prepared properly, we do our homework and we ready to go into the game, you know the lads got to execute the game plan and they go into the match with belief, confidence and I hate to say it but it’s the truth just show no respect.
“I don’t want to show any team disrespect you know because we’re coming to Barnsley or Leicester. I want us to go out there and do our stuff and then hopefully they start showing us a bit of respect. But we are not getting carried away, that the message to our boys ‘let go out there and compose ourselves on these football matches and not come away from what we’re good at.'”
Woodman also revealed that he had had managers calling him during the summer with advice as he praised his new signings for how they brought into the team’s playing identity.
“I mean I had a few managers ring me in the summer and made sure I didn’t come away from the way we play and how we play and just make sure we execute it better and get better players if I’m honest about that, and credit to the players that have come in.
“They’ve really brought into what we are. The DNA of us and how we’re going to go about things and we worked particularly hard over the summer to make sure that we’re prepared and credit to all of them and our DNA and our way we play is the way we play.”
One of Woodman’s favourite parts of being a manager is setting high targets each season and he admitted that he wants to give the whole team a chance to dream of the play-offs, including those who had been with the clubs throughout their promotions from the National League and League Two.
“Someone asked me what we want to achieve this year and if I turned around and say just survive you know, what a message is that to send to my players and staff and everyone?
“I am not wired that way. I want to make sure the players we brought in leagues many years ago to give everyone a chance of getting out of the league and why shouldn’t we dream of to dream of the play-offs and that’s our marker. That’s what we want to do.
“We had a big meeting. I have done a lot of the work with the guys and they’ve brought into what I’m saying and now we’ve got to deliver and if we fall short, we fall short. Who is going to mumble about that? Me. But we made sure we give it a real good go and we’ve started off on the right foot.”