In Review: Bromley 0 - 4 Leicester City

I return now with a slightly different spin, so join me as I look at The Good, The Bad and The Ugly from Bromley’s 0-4 home defeat to Leicester City, a match that turned out to be Andy Woodman’s last stand.

Bromley 0

Leicester City 4 Alves 4', Lundstram 16', Thomas 45+2', Riis 67'

Formation: 4231

Grant Smith

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Marcus Ifill

Omar Sowunmi (Michael Cheek 46')

Adam Jackson (Mickel Miller 81')

Richard Taylor (Jodi Jones 46')

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George Saville

Will Hondermarck

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Corey Whitely (Kamarl Grant 46')

JJ McKiernan

Mitchell Pinnock

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Victor Adeboyejo (Kamil Conteh 46')

Don’t let Will Alves’ 4th-minute opener confuse you; Bromley started this match with tempo. There was a concerted effort to get up the pitch, press higher, and launch quick attacking raids into the opposition’s final third.

As a result, for the first 15 minutes, the Ravens looked ‘better’ from an attacking standpoint. Alas, once John Lundstram screwed home the second goal in the 16th minute, Bromley’s confidence and belief visibly disappeared, and from that point it was a wrap.

Applying the hindsight of Andy Woodman’s post-match sacking, perhaps this dip was symptomatic of a side that had run out of ideas, or a team that were no longer able (or willing) to run through the proverbial brick wall that previous Bromley sides have conquered. 

Or perhaps it was just a natural human reaction to the realisation that Leicester, as they proved throughout the match, were operating on a different level.

A few players did their reputation no harm.

Grant Smith made a series of saves that kept the score down to four. It is no exaggeration to say that it could have been 0-8 but for his sharp reactions. I counted two good stops from Braybrooke, one from Lundstram, one from Thomas, and a final one from Liam Cullen.

George Saville put his body on the line in central midfield, showing a bite and nastiness that spoke to his frustration at how the game was getting away from Bromley.

At half-time, in response to the three-nil deficit, Woodman made four subs, and arguably, from that point on, Bromley looked a bit more settled. But as the manager stated post-match, “It’s easy to play well at 0-3 down.”

At the break, Michael Cheek, Jodi Jones, Kamarl Grant, and Kamil Conteh replaced Victor Adeboyejo, Corey Whitely, Richard Taylor, and Omar Sowunmi, and Bromley switched to a back three, with Jones and Pinnock playing wingbacks and Bromley trying to flood men around Cheek.

Was it better? Yes. Did it really make a difference in the grand scheme of things? No.

Leicester were too good and then some, so there is no need to act as if Bromley were ever hard done by.

However, the second Leicester goal deserves scrutiny, and it matters because it was the goal that ultimately killed the contest.

Luke Thomas ran across Marcus Ifill in the penalty area and fell dramatically to the floor, acting as though the Bromley man had tripped him. Every Bromley player seemed to pause for a half second, perhaps expecting the whistle to blow, and that momentary pause was enough for Lundstram to react quickest and shoot home.

The key person to observe in that moment is the referee. He makes a wave of his hands when Thomas goes down because, make no mistake, it was a dive. Watch the replay back.

What cannot be explained is why the referee didn’t bring the game to a halt. How was Thomas not booked for simulation, and how was an advantage played for Leicester to shoot and score?

All of that notwithstanding, the goals and chances given up to Leicester were caused by elementary unforced errors. Time and again, Bromley ceded possession, then gave the travelling side time to play in between the lines and slice open the channels.

Taylor and Ifill were caught out repeatedly, perhaps a consequence of trying to be more positive going forward. 

Leicester’s pace caused Adam Jackson problems all night, and he wasn’t alone. The centre-back was withdrawn ten minutes from time, having run himself into the ground for the second time in a few days.

It begs the question whether playing Leicester three days after Stockport was one battle too many, and whether, given the incremental fatigue, Bromley got the tactical setup wrong.

The easiest option would have been to sit in a low block and frustrate the Foxes, asking them to find a way through. It wouldn’t have been exciting, and Bromley would have likely created little to nothing in return, but they wouldn’t have been so defensively open against a side built to exploit that scenario.

Risk vs reward? 

Ultimately, there have been a few games this season where Bromley have looked completely out of their depth, and this was one of them, individual mistakes be damned. I can’t see how Woodman could have played any configuration of his squad and found a winning formula.

Could you?

How deep does the quality run in this team? More on that in a moment.

The performance was bad and Leicester City were good. 

More to the point, Bromley looked completely off it. Post-match, Woodman spoke about needing to go back to the training ground to re-instil the basics.

He never got the chance to do so.

However, ten games into the season, perhaps it is time to have some difficult conversations about the quality of the players at his disposal.

Let’s suppose Andy Woodman, a successful manager with five brilliant seasons behind him, is actually good at his job. Why would things suddenly start going wrong?

League One was always going to be a difficult bridge for Bromley to cross, and to compound the difficulty level, the club have faced an injury crisis, players have arrived late in the window, 70% of Bromley’s games have been against clubs in the top 12, and 16 new signings have been trying to gel.

At this juncture, it seems they either can’t gel, or they haven’t been given enough time to gel, or they’re just not good enough whether they’ve gelled or not.

Whatever the answer, it begs questions about the direction of the club and what is going to be asked of the new manager. What style of play can they introduce that will dramatically change Bromley’s fortunes with this squad? Can they request a pot of money to spend on yet more players in the January window, or will they have to make do and mend?

Perhaps the most pertinent question of all is who, among the recent arrivals, is good enough to excel in League One. 

Of the new names, who has impressed you at this juncture? I will save my analysis for a more in-depth article, but a quick headcount tells me that only 6 of the 16 can truly say they have had a meaningful impact.

That alone tells a story.

So what came first, the chicken or the egg? The manager or the players?

In time, we will see just how much of Bromley’s early-season struggles were down to Andy Woodman.

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Grant Smith (7)

Marcus Ifill (5)

Omar Sowunmi (5)

Adam Jackson (5)

Richard Taylor (4)

George Saville (6)

Will Hondermarck (5)

Corey Whitley (4)

JJ McKiernan (4)

Mitchell Pinnock (5)

Victor Adeboyejo (4)

Subs: 

Jodi Jones for Richard Taylor 46' (6)

Michael Cheek for Omar Sowunmi 46' (6)

Kamarl Grant for Corey Whitely 46' (6)

Kamil Conteh for Victor Adeboyejo 46' (6)

Mickel Miller for Adam Jackson 81' (n/a)