By Mitchell Hall at Hayes Lane
BROMLEY boss Andy Woodman said “Tranmere must have thought it was Christmas” after the two goals his side conceded in their 2-1 League Two defeat at Hayes Lane at the weekend.
Both sides missed a flurry of early chances before Omari Patrick put the visitors ahead int he 75th minute and Harvey Saunders doubled the advantage five minutes later.
Louis Dennis scored six minutes into added-time but it was too little too late for the Ravens whose winless league run extended to nine games.
Bromley starman Michael Cheek was also withdrawn in the 55th minute with an injury, piling the misery on for their fans who last saw a league victory when they beat AFC Wimbledon at home on the August 17.
Bromley opened the game with purpose and should have scored in the first minute when Cheek played Crystal Palace loanee Danny Imray in behind on the right wing. Imray drove into the box before smashing his shot over the bar from eight yards out.
Imray didn’t let the miss slow him down, pouncing on a loose ball between the Tranmere defence to get himself in on goal down the right wing again, but this time he flashed his effort across the face of goal and wide.
Tranmere thought they had stolen a lead in the seventh minute when Patrick played in Connor Jennings, but as he opened his body up to strike towards the far post his standing foot slipped, sending him tumbling past the ball and allowing Bromley the time to clear.
The intensity of the match flared in the sixteenth minute when Sam Finley left a shoulder in on Corey Whitely near the sideline, sending him crashing into the advertising boards with a sickening thud.
Players from both sides became involved, with Finley and Bromley’s Olufela Olomola receiving yellow cards in the melee.
Things continued to simmer as Tranmere’s Luke Norris, Jennings and even goalkeeper Luke McGee were booked before the half-time whistle.
McGee and Bromley stopper Grant Smith stole the show at the start of the second half, the latter wonderfully scrambling across his box to push the ball on to the post to prevent what seemed like a certain goal.
There was, however, nothing Smith could do when in the 75th minute a ball floated over the top was not dealt with by Omar Sowunmi, allowing Patrick to sneak around him and poke the ball into the bottom-left corner as it came down.
Saunders put the game to bed in the 80th minute with his first touches after coming on as a substitute, hassling Callum Reynolds into an awful back-pass which Saunders gratefully ran on to and slotted into the bottom-left again.
The announcement of seven added-minutes gave the home crowd some life, an atmosphere that was bolstered when in the sixth minute of that time Idris Odutayo flashed a ball across the face of the Tranmere goal, and Dennis slid in to meet it and scored from point-blank range.
There was not enough time left for Woodman’s men to take advantage of this lifeline, however, and the game ended 2-1.
A clearly frustrated Woodman didn’t pull any punches when discussing his side’s performance at both ends of the pitch.
He said: “We just didn’t take our chances, we probably had enough chances to put the game to bed by half-time.
“We defended so poorly, I mean those two goals – Tranmere must have thought it was Christmas.”
Woodman said the extent of Cheek’s injury would be assessed on Sunday, leaving him a doubt for Bromley’s trip to Doncaster Rovers on Tuesday.
Woodman added: “We can’t keep relying on Michael Cheek, other players have to chip in with goals.”
The loss saw Bromley drop to 22nd, just three points above Morecambe at the bottom of the table – a far cry from their position after they won the opening two games of the season.
