Lee Bell hails improved showing as Crewe hold high-flying Bromley

Lee Bell hailed his Crewe side’s resilience as Mickey Demetriou’s last-gasp header earned the Railwaymen a share of the spoils at league leaders Bromley.

Bromley had taken a first-half lead through Corey Whitely but Crewe hit back through Alfie Pond’s header. Ben Thompson thought he had won the game for the Ravens only for Demetriou to have the last laugh in time added on.

Bell said: “I thought we handled their physical domination well and we were terrific defending our box.

“We know we are one of the better teams in the league when it comes to cross accuracy and I thought we showed that tonight. We gifted them two goals and but for that I thought we could and should have won the game.

“We are searching for consistency, we’re a young side. We know other teams are reinforcing but we aren’t in position to do that.

“We were good at nullifying Bromley’s set-pieces and the longer the game went on the more we created good chances.

“We were disappointed with our physicality at Notts County but we amended that today. Hopefully today is the start point of us improving our away form in general.”

The game took some time to break into life, with Michael Cheek’s header from Mitchell Pinnock’s cross well saved by Ian Lawlor in the opening 15 minutes.

The table-topping Ravens took the lead on the half-hour as Whitely did well to dispossess Max Sanders before shooting beyond Lawlor.

It was the Railwaymen who started the better in the second half and deservedly equalised 10 minutes after the restart, Pond heading in Reece Hutchinson’s cross. One could have become two for Pond but he scooped a shot over the bar when it seemed easier to hit the target.

Bromley punished Crewe for that miss 20 minutes from time when substitutes Will Hondermarck and Thompson combined for the latter to shoot low past Lawlor, who then had to be at his best to keep out Kyle Cameron’s looping header.

That proved crucial as Demetriou’s back-post header earned a point at the death.

Bromley manager Andy Woodman said: “Crewe were good, I have to give credit to the opposition. They made it difficult for us and we were nervous towards the end of the game.

“We sat back and put very little pressure on the ball and in that regard maybe the equaliser was to be expected. Crewe were fantastic, moved the ball really well and asked us lot of questions.

“We have to be realistic, we can’t win every game but we still got a point and are still unbeaten at home.

“This is no reflection on players but maybe I should have made earlier subs as my players have put in a lot of work in recent games – but we still have momentum and we are still bang on course to hit our internal target.”