After two back to back home wins for Bromley, Neil Smith’s side travelled up to Birkenhead on Saturday to face promotion hopefuls Tranmere Rovers. With Tobi Sho-Silva still a week off from full fitness and Louis Dennis still recovering from a slight injury last weekend, Smith was forced into changes with George Porter starting alongside Brandon Hanlan up-front. Connor Dymond was also brought into the starting eleven with Jordan Higgs dropping to the bench. 

Tranmere came out of the blocks the better, an early miss from Jack Dunn came after a miss-timed clearance from Bromley’s Alan Dunne. The ball was sent to the back post but the Liverpool loanee was unable to keep his effort down seeing it fly over the crossbar. Tranmere continued to press and they took the lead from their second corner of the match. Andy Cook rose well above the Bromley defence and headed home after 9 minutes.

Tranmere continued to bombard the Bromley defence and it was beaten for a second time following a Jeff Hughes free-kick. Julian had saved the initial effort well but he could only push it into the path of Andy Cook who got his second of the game with only 15 minutes played.

Chances came in quick succession just before the half hour mark. The first came to James Norwood for the home side as he managed to squeeze the ball past Alan Julian but Alan Dunne was on hand to clear off the line. Bromley then went up the other end and from Brandon Hanlans making, Blair Turgott was able to get a strike away but, to the disappointment of the travelling contingent, it went wide of the post. Alan Julian was Bromley’s hero in the first half, he kept out Tranmere twice in moments with The Ravens’ defence continuing to struggle against the pace of Tranmere’s front four.

Jordan Higgs replaced David Martin at the start of the second half with Neil Smith looking to get The Ravens back into the contest. And Bromley’s hopes of getting back into the game were greatly increased when Adam Buxton received a straight red for a foul on Joe Anderson.

Bromley did indeed manage to get themselves back into the tie just after the hour mark. George Porter did well down the right and managed to send in a low cross which left Brandon Hanlan a tap in to get Bromley a goal back. The home fans were incensed when Tollitt was brought down by Turgott in the box but the referee deemed nothing wrong with the challenge. On 82 minutes Tranmere almost had a scare, Davies had come to collect a cross but completely miss-timed his jump and Higgs was gifted a free header but he put the chance wide.

Bromley completed the come back on 87 minutes when Hanlan kept the ball in play and crossed for Holland who had the simplest of tap-ins. That proved to be the last meaningful action of the game and Bromley came away from Prenton Park with a well-deserved point.

Tranmere XI: Davies, Ridehalgh, McNulty (Maynard), Ihiekwe, Cook, Norwood, Dunn, Tollitt, Buxton, Hughes, Wallace (Kirby).

Subs: Turner, Stockton, Kirby, Maynard, Mangan.

Bromley XI: Julian, Dunne, Chorley, Holland, Anderson, Martin (Higgs), Minshull, Dymond, Turgott, Porter (Goldberg), Hanlan.

Subs: Wynter, Johnson, Higgs, Goldberg, Stanic-Stewart

Attendance 4425 (74 Bromley Fans)