Andy Woodman hails Bromley’s character after overdue win

Posted Wednesday, October 23, 2024 by PA

Bromley manager Andy Woodman hailed the character of his side as they ended an 11-game search for victory by toppling high-flying Doncaster.

Ben Thompson’s 20th-minute strike against the run of play was enough for Bromley to collect their first win since the second weekend of the season as they battled superbly and showed tremendous organisation to shut out Rovers.

Woodman tipped his hat to keeper Grant Smith but praised his whole squad for the manner in which they saw off Rovers.

“We can’t get away from it – our goalkeeper was unbelievable,” Woodman, himself a former keeper, said. “He made some big saves for us.

“We’re going to need that. We’re going to need everyone in every game to be bang on it.

“The character of the team was spot on. Everyone who was on the pitch, everyone to a man knew their job and roles and were really disciplined with it.

“We limited them to mainly shots outside the box. We knew they’d have their moments but a clean sheet at Doncaster – only two teams have done that this calendar year.” There were in fact three before Bromley but Woodman added: “It’s nothing to be sniffed at.

“People say all the time that we want to be more expansive and free-flowing and attacking but keep clean sheets. We’ll always create chances and if we keep clean sheets we’ll win football matches. An old manager gave me that advice when I got the job and it’s spot on.”

Grant McCann insists Doncaster must find a killer streak or risk falling well short of their goals this season.

McCann has expressed concern in recent weeks about a lack of ruthlessness in the final third from his team, despite heading into the Bromley clash in a strong run of form.

Having witnessed Rovers’ failure to break down stubborn Bromley, McCann took no solace in the fact his team dominated possession.

“I said it two or three weeks ago but we haven’t got enough ruthless edge and we haven’t got enough killers at the minute,” he said. “That’s really annoying for me because there’s no point in creating all those chances if you don’t score any of them.

“We might float around the top six or seven in this league with that way we’re going at the minute but nothing much more than that.

“It’s even more frustrating because it’s happened to us a few times now. Against Crewe, Morecambe, Harrogate – we just don’t take the game when we have the chances.

“That’s happened to us again. Have the players got it in them? I don’t know. I’ve asked that question of them after this game.

“It doesn’t seem like we’re making the runs we need, putting our bodies on the line to score the goal. We need to be better than that.”