Bromley manager, Andy Woodman has blasted his players for a “disastrous” 7-2 defeat at Sheffield Wednesday.
Callum Slattery put the Owls ahead after just seven minutes before Mason Burstow doubled their lead in the 31st minute, which was followed by braces for Jamal Lowe and Louie Barry plus a late goal from Gabriel Otegbayo.
Victor Adeboyejo’s penalty and Otegbayo’s own-goal however reduced Bromley’s humiliation late on as Woodman’s Ravens slid from eighth to 13th in the League One table on goal difference.
Woodman post-match unleashed his anger at the performance on BFC TV as he slammed the sloppy inability to pass, tackle or make wise decisions, but refused to let the fact that they claimed four points from their first two matches be an excuse for the display.
“Disastrous, from start to finish! We didn’t get a pass right, we didn’t make a tackle, we didn’t make a good decision. You know, we just, everything was wrong. And regardless of you know, Sheffield Wednesday how good people would say they were, I thought we were so far off it all over the pitch.
“And everyone, I can imagine, I mean, it was just so bad. So some real thinking for me, you know, and maybe you know, the start has blown us away a little bit, I don’t know, but that’s an excuse to that.”
The 55-year-old gaffer proceeded to add that he struggled to pin point the exact cause of their failure but praised the fans for their enthusiastic atmosphere in the face of what they had witnessed.
“They all, they’re all just bad decisions, you know, just terrific decisions. Yeah they were just, I am not shellshocked. I’m just, just can’t put my finger on one particular thing that was just so bad.
“The only bright thing in the day is our fans, they looked like they had a good day at the end of it and celebrated a couple of goals, but bless their hearts, I mean, they were brilliant, but yeah it was really, it was really a poor performance all over the place.”
Woodman also drew comparison to their spirited FA Cup third-round loss at Newcastle in the 2024-25 season in which they only lost 3-1 at St James’ Park, as he lamented their performance and quipped that the Owls’ manager – Henrik Pedersen relished his team’s display.
“Well no, we took a team to Newcastle, we didn’t get beat seven, and they’re in the Premiership, we brought the team here today and we were just so, so poor and so weak, and so meek and so not brave on the ball, and not, you know, everything that we’ve been, we were the opposite today.
“I mean he must be buzzing in the manager cause I mean we made it so easy for them all over the pitch.”
Otegbayo’s header was one particular conceded goal that Woodman was angry at on top of the lack of basic qualities.
“I could just look at us and we wasn’t doing everything we should’ve been doing, players sliding in, players not showing down the line, players two or three, I mean, the seventh goal is that summed us up in a nutshell.
“The seventh goal. Three players out wide, none of them stopped the cross, three of them then the guy at the back seat for a free header and I mean, that sums up our day as a whole for me.
“That what we did there is terrible.”
When questioned about the post-match conversations in the dressing room, Woodman didn’t hold back in how unacceptable he found the performance even in terms of basic play.
“Well, all these conversations because, you know, I’ve been here a long time and I’m not buying this that we’ve gone up a league, it’s gonna be hard, it’s gonna be hard if we put in those performances, it trusts me, you know, and that’s not acceptable at any level, not acceptable, the basics, there’s just the basics.
“And if we got beat by a team, you know, where we was getting the basics right, and they were better than us, which they were, by the way, I can live with that, but I can’t live the manner we kind of let those goals in, which is too easy.”
Bromley now host Leyton Orient at the CopperJax Community Stadium on Tuesday 1 September at 7:45pm BST, and Woodman iterated that the squad will be training tomorrow but warned that he might rotate players for that game.
“Well the positives are that we’re in tomorrow, we’ve got a game on Tuesday and if I was one of those players not playing, I would be knocking on my door and if I was one of those players that played today, I’d be thinking to myself ‘I might not be playing on Tuesday.’
“You know the positives are that we got a game Tuesday and, you know, that’s important that we get back on the horse.
“What we can’t do is start, you know, all hiding in our little groups, and all going a little bit meek and a little bit ‘it’s not my fault, it’s not my fault, it’s not my fault.’ It’s all of our faults, myself including my staff and the players, and it just wasn’t good enough.”
With analysts and pundits now often discussing shapes in performance post-matches, Woodman ferociously iterated that he isn’t interested in that aspect as he wanted to call a bad performance out for what it basically was.
“Yeah definitely. I mean I think you know we could say the shape didn’t work, we could say this didn’t work, that didn’t work, but it was just, I hate that word when the people say about the shape, it’s not the shape. If you’re not making a tackle, you’re not holding a ball up, or you’re not making a pass, let’s not do a shape.”
Fans will have their own thoughts on the performance but Woodman reiterated that the league won’t be easy so to expect some rough results, yet vowed that he won’t tolerate weak performances.
“Yeah I think they’ll really stick the fans. I think they know there’s going to be some tough days, you know, we’re realistic, and I can live with that and I will live with that, it’s going to be a tough league for Bromley Football Club and it’s going to be a hard season and there’s going to be tough days.
“I won’t live with players not being brave, and players not showing their data, they’ve got real steel in them, and then we had a lot of players. If all of them showed a level of no steel in them today.”
With Bromley’s first London derby on the horizon, Woodman was absolutely clear that teams should approach every game with fight irrespective of if it’s a derby or not, and asserted that his team need to mature swiftly.
“Every game should have bite to it. I mean you’re right what you’re saying but every game should have bite to it. I mean, look, we’re in this league for a reason because we were the best in the league below, but we’re in the 40 today and we’ve now got to grow up quickly and we’ll grow up quickly, trust me.
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