'Outstanding' - Former Newcastle United man hailed ahead of shock St James's Park return

A familiar face will be in the away dugout when Newcastle United face League Two club Bromley in an FA Cup third round tie at St James’s Park on Sunday afternoon.

Former Magpies goalkeeper coach Andy Woodman has overseen a history-making period of success with the Ravens after he was named as successor to former boss Neil Smith in March 2021. Woodman, who spent almost five years on Alan Pardew’s coaching staff at Newcastle, led Bromley to an FA Trophy Final win against Wrexham in May 2022 and became the first manager to guide the Kent-based club into the EFL when they saw off Solihull Moors in the National League play-off final last season.

Bromley’s first campaign in League Two has provided plenty of promise and they sit just six points shy of the play-off places as their league season takes a break for Sunday’s trip to Tyneside. After helping the club into the third round of the FA Cup for the first time in their history with wins against National League duo Rochdale and Solihull, Woodman has stressed he was always confident he would get what could be an emotional return to St James’s Park ahead of the third round draw.

As he puts the final touches to his side’s preparations for their meeting with Eddie Howe’s side, Woodman has been given a passionate show of support from Ravens chairman and owner Robin Stanton-Gleaves, who revealed the dynamic partnership he enjoys with the former Magpies coach.

“My manager told me we were going to get it (a draw away to Newcastle),” he told the Ravens website.

“He is a superb manager for this football club. What he’s done during his tenure has been simply wonderful. I thoroughly enjoy working with him. I won’t pretend, there are challenging times and I want him to challenge me. Equally, I challenge him and he needs me to challenge him - but he’s been an outstanding manager for this football club and I thoroughly enjoy working with him. He said to me ‘We are getting Newcastle away’ and I said to him ‘don’t be ridiculous, you can’t make that happen, you’ve got us into the Football League, you can’t determine the draw’.

“On Monday, the day of the draw, all day at work we were here in the boardroom, out in the offices, he kept saying ‘don’t worry, Newcastle away’ - and it was Newcastle away, unbelievable. I think a draw like that is a well done and a pat on the back for the hard work we all do. The way the staff commit to this journey here at Bromley, every now and then we are due a little bit of luck and that draw was the little bit of luck we got for all of the hard work we do.”