As the weather cleared and the sun came out to play, a healthy crowd of 408 turned out for the Angels’ sixth game of pre-season, this time against a Bromley XI. With many fans unsure exactly of what side The Ravens would bring, fans were pleasantly surprised to see a strong Bromley side that included the likes of experienced defender Byron Webster, first choice goalkeeper Grant Smith and former National League top scorer Nicke Kabamba.
Angels fielded a changed side that started against Leatherhead on Saturday with Alfie Allen, Bailey Akehurst, Naz Bakrin all making starts as well as a Trialist. Boss Craig Nelson was also able to name Jack Matton in defence – he was a trialist on Saturday, but has since joined on loan from Wycombe.
Angels started the game nervously and on three minutes, a mix up at the back saw the ball fall to Kabamba who rounded Jacob Adams to poke home into an open goal. Bromley continued to dominate and 10 minutes later made it 2-0 when a corner was recycled back into the box and Idris Odutayo flicked the ball into the net with many awaiting the offside flag to be raised.
Tonbridge grew into the game after this moment and Brody Peart, Brandon Pierrick, Marcus Sablier and the trialist all had good chances to halve the deficit, whilst being wary of Bromley who were always dangerous on the counter attack.
The second half started slowly with a number of substitutions from Nelson giving players more minutes in the legs. Kabamba went close again for Bromley whilst at the other end Matt Warren forced Smith into a save at his near post. On 70 minutes, the killer moment happened where the referee adjudged a foul in the box by Matton and Kabamba stepped up to score his second of the game.
For the remaining 20 minutes, Tonbridge applied more pressure and had a series of corners and chances to pull one back with Mackenzie Richardson coming closest when his attempt was deflected for a corner when it looked like nestling in the corner.
A good test for the Angels against a very good Bromley side and Nelson’s team will be looking to bounce back at home against Folkestone Invicta on Saturday.
Craig commented: “In the first half, we’ve given them two goals and you can’t give a team like that a two goal headstart. Just a little bit of sloppiness that allowed them to take the game away from us but they stayed together. We could have rolled over quite easily from going two goals down quite early, but they didn’t fold. That shows we’ve got some good characters in the room.”
Craig said of Folkestone: “We will expect a very tough game but it’s exactly what we want just as we’re going into the start of our season.”
Report from Andy Boughton
