Andy Woodman was left “bitter and twisted” at refereeing decisions after Bromley were held to a 1-1 draw at home by Notts County.
Michael Cheek headed Bromley into a half-time lead although officials put the goal down as a Matthew Dennis own-goal, but Jodi Jones salvaged a point for County through a 52nd-minute penalty after he had been tugged by Marcus Ifill.
County subsequently finished a man down after Scott Robertson’s red card as they slipped to fourth, whilst Bromley remained top of League Two with a four-point gap as Cambridge moved up to second to become their nearest challengers after Swindon lost 3-1 at Shrewsbury.
Woodman post-match was furious with referee, Darren Drysdale’s behaviour concerning the decision to award County their penalty, as he told Bromley’s YouTube channel that he felt disappointed at the penalty decision.
“Disappointment really. Um disappointment that we’ve lost the points to a refereeing decision that he’ll look back at and realise he got it wrong. It’s a yard and a half outside of the box, the foul and he said it continued into the box. Well, I’ve just watched it back and it’s nowhere near, you know, continued into the box.
“He exaggerated his fall into box. Um so in my opinion, you know, I feel bitter and twisted about that. I have to be honest and people might look at this and say sour grapes. Absolutely.”
Bromley had controlled a close first half but Woodman felt that the “unfair” equaliser knocked “the wind out” of his team, but believed that they should of had a late penalty of their own in the dying minutes of the game.
“Um you know there was a penalty the other end at the end where we had a clear stonewall penalty. If that’s a penalty down that end, that’s a clear stonewall penalty that end.
“So you know we’ve been done both ends. Um so that disappoints me. Move the ref and linesmen all out the way, I thought we were brilliant today. I thought we really done well against a team, let’s be honest, they’re way bigger club than us and their riches are way bigger than us.
“My team was excellent. We played very well today, I thought.”
The 54-year old manager added that he asked his players at half time to add extra quality and was pleased with the overall play, as he continued to rue the fact that they didn’t win due to poor refereeing and questioned whether referees are biased towards bigger clubs.
“The message at half time was keep doing what you’re doing but just do a little bit more quality. And I felt we did that. There wasn’t loads of goal mouth action, but the actual play from us was really good today. Um, you know, and my frustrations are that we’ve kind of had a win taken away from us, which was a win.
“Um, and my frustrations really are that it’s about the fifth time it’s happened now. And it just sort of, you know, just think yourself, is it easy to give these decisions against the smaller clubs?”
Woodman also iterated that his team will not let poor refereeing behaviour affect them as he praised them for their efforts to try and find a late winner.
“Absolutely. Listen, our heads will never drop here at this club. Um, you know, it was there for us to try and push for the winner. We tried, we didn’t get it. Um, but I’m seriously proud of the team.”
Woodman however acknowledged that Bromley now have promotion in their own hands, unbeaten in 13 matches and yet to lose a league game at home this season.
“Um, but look, we’re still top of the table. We’re still in our hands. We still, you know, got everyone still to come here.
“Game still plays. Still a lot of football to go, but we’re ok. We’re still unbeaten at home.”
Woodman’s Ravens now turn their focus to a league clash at home to Cheltenham on Tuesday 17 February at 7:45pm GMT, with the boss keen to not underestimate them after they snatched a goalless draw at Barnet.
“That’ll be tough. I mean, they got good result at Barnet, we watched them today. Um, that’ll be a very tough game with a manager that been around the block. So that’ll be a tough game for us.
