Bromley bowed out of the Football League Cup at the first time of asking on Tuesday night as they lost out to old rivals AFC Wimbledon in front of a healthy crowd at Hayes Lane.
Both teams made a number of changes to their line ups that had won their opening league games on Saturday and The Ravens set up in their usual 5-3-2 formation made a nervous start.
Joe Pigott had an effort saved by Sam Long in the home goal and Myles Hippolyte fired over from the edge of the area as the visitors started on the front foot.
The Wombles continued to press for a spell, but it was Bromley who took the lead totally against the run of play when Bes Topalloj crossed from the left and Levi Amantchi arrived at the far post to side foot home for 1-0 on 19 minutes.
The lead only lasted five minutes though, some ponderous home defending saw Josh Kelly allowed space to run clear and coolly slot the ball past Long into the far corner of the net from the edge of the area to equalise.
Going into the break The Ravens had a good spell of pressure, with Amantchi involved in some great link up play, but in the end Bromley couldn’t find a way through and the teams went in level.
The second half saw Bromey have the first chance when Cam Congreve had a shot saved by Owen Goodman and he then put the rebound narrowly wide.
Wimbledon then had a good spell with Huseyin Bilar going close, while for the home team, Lewis Leigh had a shot from range saved by Goodman.
The winning goal came just after the hour mark, when a deep cross from the right was headed down by James Tiley and Pigott was on hand to convert at the far post to put Wimbledon in front.
Pigott had another effort saved by Long soon after, before the game drifted for a while. Just after Omar Sowunmi headed a corner over the bar for The Ravens, both managers made several substitutions and Bromley switched to three up front.
Marcus Dinanga shot just wide after a sharp turn on the edge of the box as Bromley pressed for an equaliser Olufela Olomola and Kamarl Grant had headers from set pieces well saved by Goodman, but they couldn’t take the game to penalties.
Heading into injury time Wimbledon did well to run time out and showed a little more craft and guile to progress through to the next round.
The two sides meet again at Hayes Lane on Saturday lunchtime in a League Two fixture and it should prove to be another close entertaining game.
Bromley: Long, Grant, Reynolds, Sowunmi, Leigh (Charles 76), Topalloj (Odutayo 76), Paul-Lavely, Congreve (Olomola 76), Arthurs, Amantchi (Cheek 76), Dinanga.
Subs Not Used: Aziaya, Foran, Moralee, Penn, Woods.
Wimbledon – Goodman, Ogundere, Lewis, Johnson, Biler (Neufville 86), Maycock, Reeves, Hippolyte ( A Smith 86), Tiley (Furlong 90), Kelly (Stevens 75), Pigott (Bugeil 75).
Subs Not Used: Ball, Ward, Sutcliffe, Wiliams.
Goals: BFC – Amantchi 19mins. WFC – Kelly 24, Pigott 61mins.
Att: 3,677
HT 1-1 FT 1-2
Referee: C Brook