A frenetic six minutes of injury time saw Bromley snatch a draw from the jaws of victory as Halifax staged a dramatic comeback to take a share of the spoils.
With Halifax having lost all four of their opening games this season and Bromley on a three game losing streak, it was always going to be a nervy match between two of the early season strugglers. Yet despite the respective struggles it was a game filled with a litany of chances with a draw being a fair result on the balance of play.
On the day of the game Bromley officially announced the signing of centre back Ben Chorley, recently released by Portsmouth, and he made his debut partnering Sean Francis in defence with Jack Holland moving to right back. Mark Goldberg also shuffled his pack further up the pitch with Max Porter replacing Reece Prestedge and Ben May for Alex Wall.
With both sides eager to get on the front foot early, it was Bromley who created the best chance in the opening fifteen minutes. May flicked on a long ball to Moses Emmanuel who was able to cut inside a defender before seeing his lob shot shave the crossbar. As if awoken by the threat on goal shown by the ravens, with their next attack Halifax forward Jordan Burrow broke clear but his one on one chance was well blocked by Alan Julian.
Buoyed by the opportunity, Halifax briefly entered a period of ascendancy and Sean Tuton was unlucky when his half volley was excellently tipped over the bar by Julian.
Bromley’s first gilt-edged chance was to come three minutes late, Anthony Cook did well to break free on the left wing and his daisy cutter cross found a stretching Emmanuel at the far post. Matt Glennon in the Halifax goal was equal to the task but could only parry the ball out to Ben May whose follow up shot was tipped over the bar.
Another Bromley chance came in the thirtieth minute, great interplay between Emmanuel, May and Porter allowed Porter to break free of two challenges before his fierce 22 yard drive was parried by Glennon. However Glennon could only parry as far as Bradley Goldberg whose snapshot was tipped over the bar.
In keeping with the see-saw nature of the match, Halifax were the last to threaten the scoresheet in the first half, a corner was not cleared by the Bromley defence and Burrow’s was the first to react crashing a volley against the Bromley crossbar.
Despite the plethora of chances, surprisingly the game ended goalless in the first half with neither side able to seize the initiative.
Following the restart, the match simply carried on in a similar vein. Four minutes into the half Halifax forward Tuton did well to turn Joe Anderson inside out before breaking into the penalty area and seeing his shot fizz narrowly wide of the far post. Bromley’s first opportunity of the half came courtesy of Emmanuel who collected Cook’s cross in the penalty area swivelled his defender but shot wildly over the crossbar on the turn.
Halifax should have perhaps then taken the lead in the sixtieth minute, from a corner Matty Brown’s powerful header was tipped away by Julian to keep the game scoreless.
The turning point for Bromley was to come with the introduction of Pierre Joseph Dubois and Alex Wall for Goldberg and May respectively. The change meant that Emmanuel moved upfront alongside Wall and Dubois played on the right wing. Almost immediately Bromley carried more threat going forward.
However prior to the change paying dividends Julian had to be at his best to deny Halifax’s Jake Hibbs, Hibbs had shown great feet on the edge of the area to create space to fire a curling effort at goal but Julian wasto be equal to the effort. Following that chance,
Bromley proceeded to dominate the remaining twenty minutes of regulation play and in the seventy-sixth minute Emmanuel scored the opening goal. Great work on the wing by Cook released Wall in the penalty area who passed across the area for Emmanuel to toe poke the ball in whilst on the floor.
With Bromley now well in the ascendancy and Halifax heads and confidence clearly gone both Cook and Ali Fuseini had close range efforts blocked as Bromley pressed for a second goal to seal the game. That second goal was to come in the ninetieth minute when Joseph-Dubois and Wall combined to allow Joseph-Dubois to break through the Halifax defence and sidefoot past Glennon.
To all intents and purposes both sets of fans thought that was the game done and dusted and even when the fourth official signalled for five minutes of injury time it seemed a formality the game would end with a Bromley victory.
Three minutes into injury time, Connor Hughes reduced the arrears with a 25 yard rocket which flew past Julian high into the net. As the game entered the sixth minute of injury time and many wondering why the final whistle had not yet been blown, one last punt into the box was met by the head of Elliot Whitehouse and in the process Whitehouse was pole-axed by a collision with Holland.
With no hesitation the referee pointed to the spot and with the last kick of the game Burrow’s made no mistake from the spot to earn Halifax a dramatic share of the spoils.
Ultimately both teams will be glad to have halted their respective losing runs but the Ravens will be most disappointed having not seen the game out when well set. Attention will now turn to next Saturday’s Kent derby with Dover with manager Mark Goldberg certain to consider shuffling the pack upfront following the
positive impact of Joseph-Dubois and Emmanuel.
FC Halifax Town: Glennon, K Roberts, Brown, Bolton, McManus, Bencherif (Hughes 46), James, Hibbs (Whitehouse 79), Bishop (Hattersley 62), Tuton, Burrow.
Subs not used: Porter, Macdonald
Goals: Hughes 90+3, Burrow 90+6 (pen)
Bromley: Julian, Anderson, Emmanuel, Chorley (Rodgers 79), Francis, Holland, Fuseini, Porter, Cook, Goldberg (Joseph-Dubois 62), May (Wall 62)
Subs not used: Dennis, Prestedge,
Goals: Emmanuel 76, Joseph-Dubois 90
Attendance: 1107
Referee: Martin Coy