BROMLEY only have themselves to blame for not returning home from Eastleigh on Tuesday evening with a victory under their belts, as a much improved performance deserved better than a 1-0 defeat.

Their failure to hit the target again was their downfall, with Charlie Ide the main culprit, missing two gilt-edged opportunities in the second half.

Bromley started slowly and the hosts had two early half chances when Brett Poate’s low shot from all of 35 yards went wide of the post before Jamie Slabber failed to get a shot away from Anthony Riverie’s pass, as he was quickly crowded out by Jerry Nnamani.

The visitors gradually came into the game and enjoyed the majority of the first half play, restricting Eastleigh to the occasional foray into the danger zone.

Tony Finn’s 16th minute free-kick was headed behind by a grateful Tom Jordan and two minutes later his left wing corner flew across the face of the goal, which Tutu Henriques just failed to nudge home.

A neat interchange between Eastleigh’s Richard Graham and Poate saw the latter cross deep to the far post, where Harrison Dunk denied the on-rushing Tony Taggart with a superb header away to safety.

On 24 minutes Charlie Ide then combined with Harry Harding and his cross from the byeline just evaded the incoming Paul Vines. Vines’ loan period at Kingstonian having ended after Saturday’s fixtures. The pairing of Vines and Ide as the front two meant that there was more fluency in the attack, which has not been seen in Bromley’s recent matches.

As Bromley went in search of that elusive goal, Jordan blocked Ide’s goalbound attempt, only for Vines to pounce on the loose ball to chip the advancing Jason Matthews in the Eastleigh goal. But his attempt fell the wrong side of the bar and a few moments later Vines did well to fend off two tackles before crossing, but there was no-one there to take advantage of his good work.

Just before the interval, Graham burst into the Bromley area but was denied by a timely tackle from David Graves.

Bromley began the second half on top and Ide missed two good chances in the space of the opening seven minutes. Firstly, on 50 minutes, he was presented with a free header on goal from Vines pinpoint cross from the left and two minutes later he should have done better when, from six yards, he scuffed his shot against the upright.

Eastleigh’s keeper Matthews tipped away a goal-bound cross after Vines had broke clear down the right.

The miss of the match came on 63 minutes when Jamie England’s clever pass over the top put Ide in on goal and, with only Matthews to beat, he blazed high and wide when it was easier to hit the back of the net.

Bromley were made to pay dearly for that miss, as in Eastleigh’s first attack of the second half, they opened the scoring with what was to prove the winning goal.

In the 66th minute a free-kick just within the Bromley half was pumped to the back post by Taggart where Jordan rose unchallenged to cushion a header down into the path of substitute Mark Nwokeji, who had a simple tap in from close range.

As in Saturday’s game at Havant, Bromley’s heads immediately went down and they did not pose a threat in the remainder of the game.

In fact, the home side should have increased their lead with six minutes remaining when another substitute, Richard Gillespie, broke clear of the last defender and had time to pick his spot, but dragged his shot wide of the left hand post.

However, this was a vast improvement over recent matches and maybe the catalyst to kick start the results for the remainder of the season.

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Bromley: Lovelock, Graves, Dunk, Henriques, Nnamani (Daly 89), Harwood, Finn, Harding, Vines, Ide, England (McBean 78). Subs not used: Wedgeworth, Hall. Att: 403.