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WWW.BROMLEYFC.COM - MATCH REPORT

BROMLEY 1 METROPOLITAN POLICE 1 – Bromley won 4-3 on penalties! Play Off Semi Final – 03/05/05

Wow! What a night at Hayes Lane, as Bromley made their way into the promotion playoff final at Horsham via penalty kicks.

The game started at a frantic pace. Playing 4-4-2 Bromley looked the better side, but didn’t really open the rugged Police defence up. The game evened out as the half went on. The closest effort was McLeod’s wild shot over from outside the box. The Police started to look more dangerous as the half closed out and they were guilty of missing a good opportunity. We lacked a bit of pace up front, but Falana did totally dominate in the air again. 0-0 at half time and it looked to be going all the way.

From the start of the second half the Police dominated the match. Cooper hit the bar and a nervous looking Bromley made lots of mistakes as the pressure started to get to them. Cooper missed another great chance when he got on to the end of a long throw and also put another header just wide. The Police were in complete dominance as we got pushed further and further back by their direct long ball game. Bromley rallied late on Amoako came on for Tommo to give us a little pace up front and we had two corners got flashing across the face of the goal. MacKenzie made a good save from Amoako and Cooper missed two more chances for the Met as the game went into extra time. Police No.4 Sears was guilty of the worst dive ever seen at Hayes Lane, which included embarrassing sound effects!

Extra time saw the Police go close from the off, but then on their first attack Bromley were awarded a very soft penalty as Drewett went down under a tackle from Barrowcliff and the linesman signalled for a spot kick. There were extensive protests from the Police with two players getting booked, but eventually Luckett stepped up and tucked the kick away for 1-0 on 95 mins. Haworth missed a great chance to equalise almost immediately, but put his shot wide. The Police were still on top as the break came.

The second half of extra time saw Bromley open up the industrial Met defence with Logan and Amoako’s pace. The scotsman had one great run just snuffed out at the death. Ex-Raven Mark Watson came on and elbowed Potterill, but got away with it. McLeod was denied by a fantastic save from MacKenzie as he fired a shot in from 25 yards. Brown missed a chance for the Police and walker made a great save, before the ball was scrambled away. With less than 3 mins left on the clock Hayes Lane fell deathly silent when Watson flicked in a header from a corner for 1-1. The Police nearly won it as they pushed on again. The brilliant Henriques had to head off the line in injury time and so to penalties.

The penalties took place at the benches end. Potterill’s effort was saved, but Walker made a great save to keep it at 0-0. Logan tucked his kick away as did McLeod and Luckett. Walker saved another kick, but Watson to levelled the score to make it 3-3, with Henriques left with the task of putting Bromley into the final. The 22 year old defender had the coolest head in the ground and put his kick straight down the middle to win the shoot out 4-3. The scenes that followed will live long in the memory. Hope was still alive. We were in the final!

Quote for the game: ‘This is going to penalties’ – Col at 7.30pm.

Team: Walker, McLeod, Luckett, Potterill, Okafor, Carroll, Falana, Tompkins, Locke, Drewett.

Subs: George, Amoako, Logan, McGowan, Stradwick.

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