Tonbridge Angels 2 Bromley 3

Match 03/24/2242 - Tuesday, 17th July 2024 - Pre-Season Friendly

Tonbridge Angels (1) 2 Tyrie 31 Trialist 84
Bromley (0) 3 Amantchi 61 Leigh 62 Trialist 68 Attendance: 432
Admission: £8
Mileage: 38/120

Tonbridge Angels , despite a 3-1 home defeat, put in an encouraging performance against a Bromley side, arriving at the Halcyon Wealth Longmead Stadium for the first time with EFL status following their National League play-off win at Wembley.

In his post match interview with Matt Davison, Jay Saunders commented: “Yeah, I thought we were better, obviously certain people coming into the team made a difference in that in certain positions but, I thought, it was a much better first half. I thought second half they started moving the ball and we sort of got a little bit leggy individually because we’ve done a lot of minutes lately, but overall pleasing with some good individual performances.”

The Angels goalkeeper, newly arrived on a season’s loan from Portsmouth. Toby Steward was drafted straight into the action and had a composed debut, with safe handling throughout, marshalling his back line verbally and made a couple of excellent saves, one first half save, low to his left to push away a well struck shot bringing appreciation from the Longmead faithful.

Bromley opened the game on the front foot, Steward making his first save in an Angels’ jersey after four minutes and following a free kick blasted into the wall, Joe Tyrie needed a moment to clear his head after bravely taking the force of the shot.

But the Angels grew into the game with Trevan Robinson narrowly shooting wide and Sean Shields bringing a save out of the Ravens’ goalkeeper.

Tonbridge went ahead after 31 minutes when Tyrie met a Shields cross from the left with a firm header.

The home side stood firm until the break without undue alarm despite Bromley exerting significant pressure.

The second half opened with Tonbridge having chances to extend their lead with a trialist forcing the visiting goalkeeper into a good save on 51 minutes and a minute later, Robinson seeing his header deflected away for a corner.

Eventually, just past the hour, Bromley’s undoubted quality brought dividends when a through ball sent Levi Amantchi poking home as Steward advanced.

One very quickly became two, when a pass to the right side of the six yard box saw Lewis Leigh drive an unstoppable shot into the roof of the net.

At that point Bromley changed almost their entire team and, on 68 minutes, a free kick from the left saw a trialist convert with a header.

Tonbridge responded with a spirited last 20 minutes that saw Shields having a shot cleared from the line; a Tyrie header that cleared the bar before two trialists combined with a pinpoint cross from the right that was finished with a good header.

It might well have been that the Angels came away with a very heartening draw as a last minute header from Tyrie was just over.

Jay Saunders concluded: “I’m pleased with how it’s going, we’ve just got to get fitness into them. When you are playing a full time team like Bromley it’s tough and you can see they’ve got that yard of sharpness but that’s why I was really happy with that first 45 and got really good work in there.”