On a freezing night in Welling, Bromley made hard work of beating a tough but unspectacular Erith side after staring very poorly.
The first half saw The Ravens look very lacklustre and failing to test their keeper for at least 30 mins! By then The Deres had taken the lead when Neufville turned in a shot from close range following a scramble from a corner. Slowly Bromley built momentum, once again relying on the hard work of Harris and Watts, but 1-0 at the break was about fair. The Ref Mr Child was a joke all night and was more interested in punishing dissent than dangerous fouls.
The second half saw a dramatic improvement in the Bromley display in no small part to Drewett and Watts being pushed wide and the introduction of Amoako and Khalouq up front. The pace of the Ravens' attacks really troubled the home defence and we should have had a couple of goals before finally Khalouq finished off some great work by Watts, with a shot from 12 yards.
The game went into extra time with Bromley on top and Khalouq put us in the lead on 105 mins with an almost identical effort to his first. It looked like that might be enough to win the game, until on 119 mins a Myatt back pass put Harwood in trouble and his scuffed clearance was sent straight back over him into the net by Adams. Harwood, much to the HLO’s disgust, was immediately subbed for Martini and on went the game to penalties...
Harney, Smith, Manuel & Watts all scored, Myatt had his effort saved, but Martini saved Erith’s last two and we won the shoot out 4-3.
Quote of the game,‘Billy Manuel is the Ryman League’s Anna Nicole Smith!’
Team: Harwood, Manuel, Luckett, Butler, Smith, Harris, Drewett, Myatt, Buckeridge, Harney, K Watts.
Subs: Amoako, Cook, Khalouq, Amaning, Martini.