Andy Woodman lauds Bromley resilience after draw with Cambridge

Bromley manager Andy Woodman praised his side’s resilience as they came from a goal down to draw 1-1 with Cambridge and maintain their unbeaten start to the League One season.

Victor Adeboyejo, who netted the winner at Barnsley last week, cancelled out Ben Knight’s opener for the visitors with nine minutes remaining.

Woodman said: “Neil Harris had his team set up really well. They studied our shape and matched us up well and when we changed they responded.

“Neil knows his stuff; we couldn’t get near them in the first half and they forced us to drop deep which meant we couldn’t get any pressure on the ball. It’s a hard problem to change in game and we needed half-time to respond to it.

“At half-time we tweaked it and we looked good value and asked different questions of Cambridge. Their goal took the wind out of us a bit but we kept going and looked dangerous.

“In truth once we got the equaliser I thought we might go on to win it and you could say we were perhaps unlucky not to even if we didn’t deserve to.”

Knight was the first to go close, drawing a fine save from Shamal George inside the opening five minutes with an effort from 20 yards.

Despite bossing possession for most of the half, Cambridge only had a late Isaac Heath chance to show for their dominance, George again at full stretch to deny the midfielder.

Bromley changed their shape in the second half to match Cambridge but it was Heath who went closest straight after the restart, forcing another parry from George that required Kamarl Grant to clear the rebound off the line.

It was Knight who eventually broke the deadlock in the 67th minute, latching on to a cross-field pass and advancing into the penalty area before slotting underneath George.

Bromley did not give up and fashioned an equaliser nine minutes from time, substitute Adeboyejo smashing into the top corner after Cambridge failed to clear their lines.

Cambridge manager Neil Harris was satisfied with a point which also extended their unbeaten start since promotion.

He said: “I thought we were excellent first half, we moved the ball really well.

“The only thing we were really missing was the final touch but other than that we were brilliant. Fair play to Bromley, they were good in the second half, they changed their shape and asked questions and made it a lot more difficult for us.

“We knew in the second half we would have to wait for a moment and Ben Knight was clinical with the chance he got but we knew Bromley were going to come back at us.

“They get bigger and they go longer. Bromley are very good at what they do and did it for the last 20 minutes. Perhaps we shouldn’t have got too deep which is my only quibble but it was a good point.”