By Paul Green at Hayes Lane
BROMLEY boss Andy Woodman questioned how Cambridge United were able to draft in goalkeeper Jack Walton on loan from Preston North End a day before Thursday night’s 0-0 draw between the promotion rivals.
Regular stopper Jake Eastwood was banned after seeing red in Cambridge’s previous game, a 4-0 home win over Notts County.
And although understudy Ben Hughes came off the bench and kept a clean sheet that day, Cambridge were still allowed to add Walton on an emergency loan to face the Ravens, something Woodman wasn’t happy about afterwards.
He said: “I’m surprised their goalie got sent off last week and they were allowed to bring in a loan goalkeeper from the Championship.
“That is a funny old rule. You get a goalie that is fit and then you are allowed to bring in a goalkeeper that is probably better than your first-team keeper.
“Credit to Cambridge because those are the rules, but it is a strange rule that needs a look at going forward.
“The keeper wasn’t injured, was he? The regular keeper got sent off and the other boy came in and played really well and I just don’t understand that rule.
“If he was injured then I would get it.”
Woodman is a former goalkeeper and his son, Freddie, is a back-up stopper at Liverpool.
Woodman added: “Those are the rules and I know everyone will say that is sour grapes from me, but it is certainly a rule that should be looked at.
“How are we going to get these young keepers getting minutes on the pitch? The young kid played well last week and was probably looking forward to getting another game tonight.
“That’s me speaking as the father of a goalkeeper, not just a bitter manager.”
Despite the manager’s frustration with Walton’s involvement, Woodman knows his side are edging ever closer to League One with only two games remaining.
In fact, should Notts County fail to beat Barnet at home on Saturday then Bromley will already be promoted by the time they face Salford on the road next Thursday.
“We aren’t there yet,” Woodman said.
“I don’t want to get carried away thinking about where we are, or where we should be, but we are close.
“It is still in our hands and that is the beauty of where we are at.”
Bromley now have a full week to prepare for the trip to Salford, something Woodman welcomes.
He said: “We could have fifteen or 20 days off if the result goes for us at the weekend in the Notts County game!
“I do think it is going to be important for us though to have a little bit of a recovery period, get ourselves together and go to Salford next week.
“That’s going to be a really tough place to go, which it always is with any Karl Robinson team.
“They’ve got a striker up top (Ryan Graydon) who cost a fortune so it will be another big test for us.”
Cambridge manager Neil Harris was complementary of the hosts after the game.
He also praised Walton who made a late save before three rebounded efforts were blocked by visiting defenders.
The former Millwall boss said: “First half we were the better team, could have been two, three up. If you don’t take your chances you put yourself on the back foot a little bit. Bromley came out second half playing downwind, downslope – we’ve seen tonight why they’re top of the league. They’re relentless at what they do, they’re ever so good at what they do but the buggers can run, get around second balls and they fight and they scrap.
“They ask questions of you, and they asked a lot of questions of us second half. We had to put our bodies on the line. Big thank you to Jack Walton, not just for the save that he made that gets us a clean sheet, but just his mentality and character to come and want to play tonight. It’s not easy to step in like that.”
