MICHAEL Cheek hit a hat-trick to send Bromley to the top of League Two for the first time after their 3-1 win over Crawley Town at Broadfield Stadium as the Ravens completed December with a magnificent five wins from five.
After the month started with a 3-1 win against Crawley at Hayes Lane, Andy Woodman’s side repeated the trick with Cheek scoring once before the break and then adding two more in five minutes in the second half.
Charlie Barker had levelled for Crawley two minutes before half-time, but there was no stopping Cheek as the 34-yer-old added his eleventh and twelfth league goals of the season.
Bromley have won nine of their last ten league games in their second-ever season in the Football League.
In 2025, Cheek registered more goals and assists (33) and more goals (25) than any other player in the EFL.
Woodman picked out the performances of defenders Deji Elerewe and Omar Sowunmi as well as praising Cheek.
“Michael Cheek was excellent,” Woodman said. “You just can’t give him chances like that, half-chances. The first header was excellent and the other two goals were fantastic.
“He’s the obvious one to single out but I thought my two centre-halves were excellent. Omar and Deji were solid, won every ball in the air, competed well. There were really good performances all over the pitch.
“We listened to their manager saying this was a hard place to come – he did my team-talk for me. He wasn’t bothered about Bromley coming here but we just turned up and did what we did, got the result.
“We’re relentless in everything we do. These boys have bought into it and now they’re driving it themselves. The ones that are not playing are driving the ones that are playing. It’s brilliant, it’s exactly where I wanted to get this football club and this group of players. It’s not taken five minutes, it’s taken time, and we’ve got a good culture around the club.
“But I must just repeat – we haven’t achieved anything yet. This counts for nothing unless you get a result against Newport County. That’s how it’s going to be all the way, every game is going to be massive because we’re there to be shot at.
“That’s where we want to put ourselves, we want to put Bromley right at the top of the tree and top of the map.”
That game against the Exiles is on January 1 at Hayes Lane (3pm).
