As we near the halfway point in the League Two season and ‘the busy festive period’ Bromley find themselves sitting in fourth in the table, unbeaten at home in the league and well placed for a promotion push in the second half of the campaign.   

Manager Andy Woodman’s stock continues to rise as he has built a stronger more resilient team for the club’s second season in the Football League.

The summer signings of Mitchell Pinnock and Will Hondermarck from Northampton Town have proved to be inspired adding strength and creativity to the midfield, Nike Kabamba has found goal scoring form despite limited time on the pitch with the move to a 4-5-1 formation and the switch to a back four has seen Deji Elerewe and Omar Sowunmi form a solid partnership in the centre of defence, with both also scoring vital goals. Michael Cheek continues to score, reaching nine already and Corey Whitely continues to set him up.

There was a reliance on loan signings last season to boost the squad, while this campaign there are only three in the squad, only one of which looks likely to feature regularly in Ben Krauhaus who came back to the club from Brentford, while right back Lakyle Samuel from Manchester City is competing for that spot with Marcus Ifill after Carl Jenkinson was ruled out with a long term injury in pre-season.

Ifill has settled in well to his more defensive role, but has still been able to get forward and will be looking to add more goals to his game like the one he scored against Barrow recently.

The early exit from the FA Cup and the other EFL cup competitions have proved to be a blessing in disguise for The Ravens, last season’s form was dramatically affected around the Newcastle Utd FA Cup tie and probably cost Bromley a place in the play offs. This season the entire focus at Hayes Lane is on the league from now until May.

The four league defeats have come away from home against strong opposition in Walsall, Swindon Town, Oldham Athletic and Cambridge Utd, but Bromley seem to have found a way to convert more draws into wins this season so far, compared to last term when they drew 15 times.

The wins over MK Dons, Crewe Alexandra, Colchester Utd & Salford City were really impressive, only conceding one goal in total over the four games.            

Looking at the teams around them, Bromley are definitely in more esteemed company in terms of support, traditional size of club and budget, but in many ways that just helps with the motivation for the players and supporters. All the time that the narrative is that we are just a long ball team, punching above our weight, Andy Woodman’s side can keep surprising and frustrating ‘bigger’ teams.           

Away from the pitch, the New East Terrace has opened at 50% capacity with work on going to the infrastructure and the average home crowd is now around the 3,500 mark, ten times what it was twenty years ago, with the club’s excellent community engagement raising it’s profile across the borough.      

Christmas sees a home game with Grimsby Town on Saturday, followed by trips to Bristol Rovers and Crawley Town and a New Years Day game back at Hayes Lane against Newport County.  Once we get to January there will be a clearer picture of how things are shaping up and who will be challenging for the top three and the play off places.      

Picture supplied by Mark Rendell.