Bromley extended their unbeaten run to eight games with a single goal victory over St Albans City, on Saturday at Hayes Lane, to narrow the gap on the league leaders to three points with two games in hand.

In a poor game, both defences cancelled out the opposing attackers and, as a consequence, goalscoring chances were at a premium.

The first chance of the game came Bromley’s way in the eighth minute, and should really have resulted in a goal. Damian Scannell’s cross to the far post was met by Louis Dennis, who shot well over the bar when it seemed easier to hit the target.

Dennis was caught in possession on the edge of the St Albans area by former Bromley player Nathan Green, who proceeded to carry the ball the length of the pitch to find Lee Chappell, whose cross was cut out by Bromley’s goalkeeper Seb Brown in the 16th minute.

Both sides found it difficult to control the ball on a very uneven pitch, and were guilty of giving possession away unnecessarily on many occasions.

The visitors nearly opened the scoring on 30 minutes when Omar Beckles headed a Reece Prestedge clearance just wide of the post, and as half-time approached, Green’s low shot did not trouble Brown.

The second half followed a similar pattern to the first, with most of the play in the middle third of the pitch, before Brown saved from another Beckles header in the 66th minute.

The vital goal came in the 77th minute from substitute Moses Ademola, who had only been on the pitch 10 minutes after replacing Adam Birchall.

The substitute fastened onto Dennis’s ball over the top, pulled it under control to side step his marker and curled a lovely shot beyond former Bromley goalkeeper Joe Welch.

Welch did well five minutes later to cut out a dangerous looking cross from Ademola as Jamie Slabber closed in.

In the last minute of normal time Bromley nearly gifted St Albans an equaliser when sloppy defending from the normally reliable Jack Holland, who miscued a back pass to Brown, whose clearance ricocheted off a forward to bounce off the top of the crossbar.

Bromley: Brown, Udoji, Anderson, Prestedge, Swaine, Holland, Scannell, Waldren, Robertson (Slabber, 67), Birchall (Ademola, 67), Dennis. Subs not used: McNaughton, Rodgers, Fuseini

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