Andy Woodman interview: Bromley's manager on his love for Newcastle United, 'obsession' with Eddie Howe and Jason Tindall – and plans for a Quayside pint

Former Newcastle United goalkeeping coach Andy Woodman has opened up on his return to St James' Park with Bromley for Sunday's FA Cup tie.

Former Newcastle United goalkeeping coach Andy Woodman lifting the FA Trophy with Bromley two years ago.

One thing Andy Woodman was told when he joined Newcastle United has always stuck in his mind.

Woodman, born in Camberwell, London, had spent his life in the capital before he took a job at St James’ Park as the club’s goalkeeping coach under Alan Pardew.

“You’ve to realise I moved to Newcastle having never been there in my life,” said Woodman. “I moved all my family to Newcastle, having never lived out of London.”

Something Steve Harper, one of the goalkeepers he would work with in his four-and-a-half years on Tyneside, said to Woodman would resonate with him during his time on Tyneside.

“He said I’d never want to leave, and I didn’t want to leave,” said Woodman.

Pardew, however, left the club in December 2014 for Crystal Palace – and Woodman joined him at Selhurst Park at the end of that season.

Woodman will be back at St James’ Park as manager of League Two club Bromley for Sunday’s third-round FA Cup tie against Eddie Howe’s Newcastle, who have won seven successive league and cup games.

“I said to everybody, ‘we’ll draw Newcastle!’,” said Woodman. “Plain and simple, I wanted Newcastle.

“I want my team and my staff, and everyone at the club, to experience what I was fortunate enough to experience for five brilliant years at probably the best stadium and atmosphere in the Premier League by a country mile.”

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The stadium is full of memories of Woodman, who was by Pardew’s side during a challenging period for the club.

Woodman, used to turning right at the mouth of the tunnel, will turn left, and take his place in the away dugout for the televised tie.

There were highs during Pardew’s tenure, notably a fifth-placed finish and a run to the quarter-finals of the Europa League, though domestic cup success was not a “priority” for the hierarchy of the club, which was then owned by Mike Ashley.

“On a football perspective, the season we got into Europe was a phenomenal season,” said Woodman. “That was really a brilliant season when you think about Papiss Cisse scoring at Chelsea, some of the goals Demba (Ba) got, some of the results, Tim Krul’s performance at Tottenham away, the Arsenal 4-4. They were amazing days.

“The whole place is really close to my heart. It was brilliant for me to bring up a family there. I had a young daughter of 12, and a son of 14. They were really important years for my children. They became adults at Newcastle. Their love for the city is as great as mine.”

Arsenal exit

The cup tie will be a surreal experience for Woodman, who left Arsenal, where he was head of goalkeeping, to take charge of Bromley when they were in the National League.

Bromley’s Hayes Lane home.

Woodman’s wife thought he was “crackers” for leaving a Premier League position to take a job in non-league football – but the club has since enjoyed unprecedented success.

Bromley won the FA Trophy in 2022 – they beat Wrexham at Wembley in the final – and the club followed that feat with promotion to the fourth tier of English football last year.

“First and foremost, if you had said to be at Newcastle that I’d be coming back as a manager, I’d have probably looked aghast,” said the 53-year-old.

“I’ll be really proud to be walking out as a manager at a fantastic club that I worked at. I’m really looking forward to seeing loads of friends there who were so great to me when I was there.

“We want to come and be competitive. We’d love to come and win, but we’re realistic. The challenge is a tough one, but we’re looking forward to it as well. I’m looking forward to my players being around some of the best players in the world.”

Woodman was given a reminder of the kind of challenge his team will face at St James’ Park while on a scouting trip to Wimbledon’s Plough Lane late month.

“I was watching Wimbledon versus Gillingham, as we had Gillingham next,” said Woodman. “My wife was watching Man United versus Newcastle on TV. All she kept texting was ‘oh my god, they are brilliant!’.

“After about 20 minutes of her telling me how brilliant Newcastle were, I said ‘can you just turn it over, and watch something else. You’re not making me feel much better!’.

“I know what to expect. I have to cling on to the little one per cents, and the one thing I will say, and I say this with the utmost respect to Newcastle, Eddie, Jason (Tindall) and all the people there, is that every year through history, there’s an upset in the FA Cup.

“It’s the history of the FA Cup. We’ve just got to hope we’re the history that makes the upset this year. If we’re not, it won’t be for the lack of trying.”

Howe and Tindall ‘obsession’

Woodman has long followed the career of Howe with interest, and he got an insight into his methods from his son Freddie, who was a goalkeeper at Newcastle when he succeeded Steve Bruce as head coach in November 2021.

“Eddie won’t know this,” said Woodman. “When I got my managerial job, Freddie was there at the time. Freddie spoke so highly of him in that period.

“I spent pretty much every day saying ‘what does he do? What do the staff do?’. I became a bit obsessed with what he does in training. Freddie told me so many things that I have implemented at my club on the training pitch, around the club.

“I have to look at Eddie and Jason, and look at what they have done, not only at Newcastle. I bumped into them when they were at Bournemouth.

“Me and Pards bumped into them at Southampton at a game. They were adrift at the bottom of the table, they couldn’t buy players. Not only did they keep Bournemouth up, they took them to the Premier League.

“That’s really my obsession with Eddie and Jason and what they have done there. It can be done. On some sort of scale, I’ve done that with Bromley already, and I want to keep doing that with Bromley.”

Woodman’s own managerial philosophy was shaped during his time on the backroom team at St James’ Park.

“Again, without being over the top, there’s one big thing I learnt from Newcastle,” said Woodman. “Everyone got confused with Newcastle fans being delusional and all of this and that. They were never delusional. All Newcastle fans ever wanted was a team of players to go out on the pitch and give everything.