A shocking opening twenty five minutes saw Bromley deservedly beaten and humbled away to league title favourites Grimsby Town on Saturday afternoon.

Having started the season with both a win and a defeat it was always going to be a difficult task for the Ravens to pick up points at Grimsby but manager Mark Goldberg will surely look at how he set up his side in the first half and rue the expansive approach Bromley adopted.

Setting up in a very bold 4-3-3 formation with newcomer, Gillingham loanee, Callum Davis in for Moses Emmanuel in centre midfield alongside Reece Prestedge and Ali Fuseini, Grimsby ruthlessly exposed the defensive frailties on the flanks as they quickly raced into an early two goal lead.

With barely three minutes on the clock Andy Monkhouse was given space and time to pick out Omar Bogle in the penalty area, Bogle neatly chested down into the path of Padriag Amond who made no mistake with a calm sidefoot finish past Alan Julian. The Bromley defence was clearly rattled at the quick start from the Mariners and the team as a whole appeared very unsuited to their requirements within the team shape. Consequently it came as no surprise when less than three minutes later they found themselves two goals down albeit in controversial circumstances.

Bogle was released down the wide open Bromley right flank and as he cut into the penalty area Jack Holland slid in appearing to make contact with the ball; however that did not prevent Bogle from falling theatrically to the ground. Despite no Grimsby player appealing for a penalty, inexplicably referee Mr R Wigglesworth pointed to the spot. Following a brief tussle over who should take the penalty Bogle made no mistake from the spot although Alan Julian will probably think he should have done better having guessed the right way.

No less than two minutes later Grimsby should have had a third when an unmarked Amond header over the bar from a corner. It took until the seventeenth minute for Bromley to register an effort on goal, Prestedge picked up a loose ball from a corner and slid in Bradley Goldberg whose sharp shot forced James Mckeown into a smart one handed save at the near post.

Alas with Grimsby’s next attack the third goal came. A corner from Nathan Arnold was headed back across the goal by Josh Gowling and Amond was on the spot to volley the ball expertly past Julian.

Belatedly Mark Goldberg changed the team shape and Bromley resorted to a more compact 4-4-2 and consequently for the remainder of the first half the ravens were able to contain the rampaging Grimsby frontline. In fact it was Bromley who were to score the next goal, a Joe Anderson cross found debutant Davis at the backpost and he steered his header past Mckeown to give Bromley hope five minutes before the interval.

Grimsby still had time to fashion one last opportunity before half-time, once again Bogle was able to run beyond the Bromley defence but his effort on goal was well blocked by Julian.

With the benefit of the half time interval and no doubt a stern talking to from Mark Goldberg, Bromley emerged for the second half with far more resolve and were more industrious in their approach to the game. Louis Dennis had replaced Callum Davis which allowed a better balance to the midfield four.

A combination of Bromley upping their tempo and combativeness along with Grimsby perhaps playing within themselves saw the second half play out to little or no incident and no clear shot on target for either side. That Grimsby added a late goal in injury time only served to add gloss to the scoreline but was no more than they deserved given their opening dominance of the match.

Great interchange between Bogle, Amond and Richard Tait saw Jack Mackreth played in on goal; intelligently he passed across the penalty area for Craig Clay who had a simple tap in to seal an emphatic win for Grimsby.

Whilst the scoreline was not totally unexpected given the gulf in class between the two sides, Mark Goldberg will no doubt be worried at the capitulation of his side inside the first twenty five minutes and the defeat poses selection dilemmas ahead of Tuesday’s visit by Braintree Town to Hayes Lane.

For the newly promoted sides such as Bromley it will be how they perform against the other part-time sides in the league that ultimately will define their season.

Grimsby Town: McKeown; Tait, Gowling, Nsiala, East; Arnold, Clay, Disley, Monkhouse(Mackreth 79); Amond (Pearson 90), Bogle

Subs not used: Robertson, Clifton, Venney

Goals: Amond 2, 25; Bogle 6; Clay 90

Bromley: Julian, Udoji, Holland, Francis, Anderson, Fuseini, Prestedge (Porter 62), Davis (Dennis 45), Goldberg, May (Dubois 62), Cook

Subs not used: Emmanuel, Wall

Goals: Davis 39

Attendance: 4731

Referee: Mr R Wigglesworth