With half an hour to go before kick-off , a roar echoes round the ground. MK Dons have levelled with Cambridge United via a penalty deep into injury time, Aaron Collins scoring from the spot to deny the hosts victory.
In the 20-minute interlude between Shayne Lavery’s opener at the Abbey Stadium and the referee’s fateful whistle, Cambridge looked set to go top of the table. Instead Bromley get under way against Accrington Stanley with a one-point lead at the summit of League Two, much to the relief of the home fans.
There has been a quiet revolution in this corner of suburban south-east London. A decade ago, Bromley were in the middle of their first season in the National League. Having hosted crowds in the low hundreds in the Conference South a few years before, the club started to grab people’s attention. There was no single turning point – a first appearance in the FA Trophy final in 2018 ended in heartbreak, Bromley squandering their lead at the death before losing on penalties – but their progress was undeniable. Attendances in the hundreds became attendances in the thousands, there was investment in facilities and the team, once they settled in the fifth tier, started to set their ambitions higher.
The arrival of Andy Woodman in 2021 was the catalyst for a deeper transformation. Recruited from Arsenal, where he had been head of goalkeeping, Woodman had little experience as a head coach, but came with a habit of sprinkling gold dust. The former keeper came through the ranks at Crystal Palace, where he formed a lifelong friendship with Gareth Southgate – the pair served as best men at each other’s weddings – marked by mutual supportiveness during the biggest moments of their careers. Meanwhile, Woodman’s son, Freddie, has played between the sticks for Newcastle, Preston and now Liverpool, mentored closely by his father, who coached him at St James’ Park.
Coming from a Premier League environment, Woodman brought high standards: he talked about “changing the culture”, placing special importance on professionalism, ironclad fitness and hard work. It has paid off: the team have a dominant, front-foot style of football, specialising in set pieces – in an echo of his time working with Mikel Arteta – while also capable of blowing away opponents in open play. In his first season, they reached the National League playoffs only to lose in the quarter-finals.
In his second, they won the FA Trophy, exorcising old ghosts, before another defeat in the playoffs the following campaign. Finally, in 2024, the dream became reality, victory over Solihull Moors in the playoff final elevating Bromley to the Football League for the first time. When they finished 11th in their first season in League Two, fans had to pinch themselves.
As the referee blows for full time against Accrington, the noise almost drowned out by the steady tattoo of a drum in the George Wakeling Stand, Bromley find themselves four points clear at the top of the table. Two well-taken penalties from Michael Cheek, their top scorer for the past six seasons and counting, and an early red card for Accrington’s Donald Love, ease the hosts to a 2-1 win.
Their unbeaten run now stretches to 16 matches, with their last defeat coming against Walsall in November. They are the only side in the top four divisions of English football who are unbeaten at home in the league this season. Promotion to League One is well within reach.
“We know what we are, we’re good at what we do and we don’t come away from it,” says Woodman, soaking up the silence after the match. “The biggest thing is there’s a culture been built here, a desire and a belief. If you’ve got that throughout the club and among the players, that they won’t roll over against anybody and have a real desire to win, it takes you a long way.”
Cheek, who is now second in the League Two scoring chart with 16 goals, is among a core group of players who have helped to carry Bromley through National League promotion and beyond, with six of their starters against Accrington having featured for the club in the fifth tier. That cohesion has been crucial to their success.
While they have added to the squad since promotion, mixing experienced players such as the former Arsenal defender Carl Jenkinson – a starter against Accrington after an injury-disrupted spell – with promising youngsters, the chair and owner, Robin Stanton-Gleaves, has made a point of investing off the field.
“I’ve seen pretty much everything round the ground [change],” says Matt Hall, who has gone from programme editor to stadium announcer and head of football operations in the past decade. “The chairman’s attitude when we were in the National League was that we needed to be ready [for promotion] off the pitch before we were ready on it.”
The result is that Bromley have climbed higher than ever before and are determined to keep climbing. “We really don’t want it to come to an end,” says Woodman. “We’ve got a target of how we want the season to finish – and we’re going to stick to it.”
