Will Osula settles Newcastle nerves after Bromley threaten FA Cup upset

During five years on Newcastle’s payroll Andy Woodman’s apparently endless supply of jokes prompted plenty of training ground laughter but club insiders knew better than to underestimate their goalkeeping coach.

That judgement was vindicated as, a decade after leaving Tyneside, Woodman returned as Bromley’s manager. Ultimately the team currently 12th in League Two could not prevent their hosts from recording an eighth straight victory in all competitions but, for quite a while, Woodman’s meticulously organised players frustrated Eddie Howe’s Premier League high-flyers.

Although Newcastle’s manager refused to panic when Cameron Congreve gave Bromley an early lead it took the second half introduction of Anthony Gordon and Bruno Guimarães to raise the home tone on a day when Will Osula confounded the doubters by scoring his first goal in a Newcastle shirt.

It effectively sealed his side’s place in the fourth round draw but Newcastle arrived in it via a slightly scenic route.

As he made his way to the away technical area at kick-off Woodman could barely stop smiling. By the eighth minute his grin was as wide as the Tyne after Congreve dispossessed Lewis Miley, swivelled seamlessly and unleashed a dipping, curving, 20-yard left-foot shot that Martin Dubravka touched but failed to hold as it swerved into the bottom corner. In one fluid blur of movement the 20-year-old Swansea loanee had emphasised precisely why he is a Wales Under-21 attacking midfielder.

Woodman had opted for the security of a back five but, if anything, Bromley’s formation seemed to have heightened their sense of adventure and the 21-year-old Crystal Palace loanee Danny Imray came very close to swiftly doubling the visiting lead after advancing from right-back and directing a low shot fractionally wide.

A subsequent break in play afforded Howe a chance to issue Miley and his fellow midfielder Sean Longstaff with a touchline pep talk. Much to Woodman’s dismay, it was clearly heeded as when Osula, deputising for the rested Alexander Isak in a heavily rotated Newcastle starting XI, got his feet in a tangle as he attempted to round Bromley’s goalkeeper, Grant Smith, Miley pounced on the fallout.

After receiving possession on the edge of the area the 18-year-old took a steadying touch before sending the cleanest, crispest of shots well beyond Smith’s reach. It proved the cue for Woodman to fold his arms and start looking slightly pensive.

Cameron Congreve gives Bromley the lead from distance in the eighth minute. Photograph: Alex Dodd/CameraSport/Getty Images

The Bromley manager’s memories of travelling to fourth-tier Stevenage as part of Alan Pardew’s Newcastle staff for a third-round tie in 2011 and returning on the wrong end of a 3-1 scoreline had just receded a little.

Pardew picked a strong starting XI that day but some of his supposed stars failed to take their opponents seriously enough. Something not entirely dissimilar happened when Howe’s Newcastle were sunk 1-0 here by League One Cambridge United in another third-round tie in January 2022 and fears of another upset perhaps explained the ripples of mild frustration running through the crowd as the hosts dominated possession but failed to do too much constructive with it.

If Miley in particular was doing his bit to try and change that narrative it did not help that Osula was extremely well marked by Omar Sowunmi. With Callum Wilson currently injured, Osula, formerly of Sheffield United, and Isak are Howe’s sole specialist centre-forwards but, at this stage at least the former, described as “a project striker” by his manager, appeared very much a work in progress.

At the interval Howe offered Osula a little extra help in the shape of England’s Gordon and Brazil’s Guimarães, with that pair stepping off the bench to replace Joelinton and Harvey Barnes.

It did not take Gordon long to amplify the St James’ Park decibel level. The left-winger’s 49th-minute penalty sent Smith the wrong way to propel Newcastle into the lead after Matt Targett was sent crashing by Ben Thompson’s late challenge.

The scene was set for Osula’s big moment. Having collected possession just inside Bromley’s half, the striker advanced, cutting in from the right and using his strength to resist a marker before beating Smith courtesy of an inexorable, high velocity left-foot shot that arrowed into the far top corner.

It left Osula celebrating so long and hard that it took Kieran Trippier shouting at the 21-year-old to get him back in position for the restart. Even Woodman had to smile, albeit ruefully, at that.