For the first time in their 132-year history, Bromley FC are set to feature in the English Football League, participating in their first League Two game on Saturday as they travel to Harrogate Town.

As such, the club conducted their first press conference, with manager Andy Woodman providing the media with his thoughts on preseason, summer recruitment, and his expectations of the upcoming league campaign.

“It’s been a good preseason; I think the boys came back in good fitness and spirits obviously with the promotion. We had a good tour, the results have been good, not that they count for much, but everyone’s in good shape and we’ve got a fully fit squad to get ready for the first game of the season.”

The club have welcomed eight new signings to Hayes Lane this summer, and when asked about their integration into the squad, Woodman expressed his pleasure with the added competition.

“If you’d have been out on the training pitch today you can see everyone’s buzzing, everyone’s really on it and together, there’s a good comradery in the group. There’s a healthy competition in the group, and that’s what I wanted to create in the squad, especially as we’ve gone up. Looking at some of the tackles in training today I think everyone’s vying for a position in the starting line up on the first day.”

One thing that has been made apparent is Woodman’s desire to aim high this season, as opposed to just making up the numbers. On this, he said:

“I’ll go on record saying that we want to get in the play-offs! I don’t want to just participate in any league, whether it’s this league, the National League or any league I’ve worked in. I think every manager and every club in the country that’s got playoffs to get in will all be aiming for that as a first base, and I think we should make that our first base.”

“I don’t think we should expect just to survive, I don’t want to have that mantra around myself and my football club. I’m the leader of these guys, if they hear me saying ‘we just want to survive’ I think they’ll be looking at me with a funny face saying, ‘well that’s not really what you’re about’. We want to try and push as high as we can, everyone’s got a chance of getting in [the playoffs] so why shouldn’t we be wanting to get in the playoffs?”

Following Bromley’s historic day at Wembley in May, 13 of the 16-man squad that triumphed against Solihull Moors have remained at the club, starkly contrasting the likes of Crawley, who have seen their promoted squad demolished. Woodman highlighted the importance of keeping the core group of players:

“I think it’s important, I think there’s a little bit of loyalty there, but I think the biggest overriding factor is the belief that they can play at the level above. That’s the trust that I’ve given to them, and I believe they’re good enough to play in the league above, and I’ve certainly had them knocking on my door enough telling me they’re good enough, so let’s see.”

“Were we the best team in the league below? No. Were we tactically the best team? No, but we were the most together group, the most hardworking group, and the most relentless group in that league and I want to keep that mantra and that DNA in the football club.”

The last few League Two seasons have seen National League greats thriving in front of goal, with Paul Mullin and Macauley Langstaff in particular leading the way. Woodman believes that the club’s legendary striker Michael Cheek can follow this trajectory but was quick to remind us that there are goals aplenty in his squad.

“Michael Cheek’s a good player, and he’ll score goals wherever he goes. That’s just Michael Cheek, but you’re missing out a few other of our strikers who can score goals. We’ve got Marcus Dinanga who can score goals, [Olufela] Olomola who can score goals, and we’ve got Levi Amantchi who can score goals, and that’s not mentioning Louis Dennis and our centre halves.”

“We’ve got a team that can get goals from everywhere, and that’s important. I think Michael Cheek will score goals in this league with no doubt, but there’s many other lads in that squad that will add goals for this football club.”

With the signing of Marcus Dinanga from Gateshead, Bromley have five recognised strikers in their squad. As such, Woodman believes he will be afforded plenty of tactical flexibility this season:

“Well, we played with two strikers here last year, it was only just after January that we changed the way we went about things. We changed our shape at that point, which I think was a good move by us because at that point, people were expecting us to set up a certain way. We played with two strikers for most of last season, it was only towards the end we changed it through one or two injuries and it kind of worked.”

“We’ll be mixing it up again, we’ll have one or two formations, but all the formations and the tactics in the world come down to the quality and the desire of the football players, and we’ve got that in abundance here.”