There are easier ways to begin a League One season than a trip to Oakwell, and Bromley will have known that before a ball was kicked. Barnsley, a club that has spent much of the past decade straddling the Championship and the third tier, represent exactly the kind of established opponent that newly arrived sides are supposed to find uncomfortable. So a 1-0 win away from home, on the opening day, carries genuine weight.

The single goal was enough. Bromley kept a clean sheet on the road against one of the division's more physically imposing sides, and that alone is the sort of result that gets you noticed in a 24-club table where early points matter more than many managers will publicly admit.

Speaking after the match, Bromley manager Woodman was measured but clear in what he wants this result to signal. "Hopefully teams will show us respect," he said, in comments reported via BBC Radio London. It is the kind of remark that reads quietly confident rather than boastful, which is probably the correct register for a club still working out its place in the division.

Bromley's League One status is not something to be taken for granted. They are among the newer faces in the third tier, and the sceptic's response to a single opening-day victory is always the same: one game is one game. That is fair. Four games is four games, and the table after a month tells you considerably more than it does after 90 minutes in the second week of August. But it would be equally wrong to dismiss what happened at Barnsley as irrelevant. Away wins do not fall into your lap at this level, and the manner of it, a clean sheet on the road, suggests Bromley are organised defensively at the very least.

What Barnsley will make of this is another question. They arrived at the new campaign with ambitions of their own, and being on the wrong end of a tight home defeat on the opening day is the kind of start that prompts early scrutiny of a squad's readiness. There is plenty of football to come, of course, and the League One season is long enough to absorb a stumble in the first fixture. But it will sting.

For Bromley, the priority now is consistency. Opening-day results create momentum or they create false dawns, and only the subsequent weeks reveal which. The fixture list will not get easier simply because they have taken three points from a tricky away assignment. If anything, opponents will study them more carefully. That, in its own way, is precisely what Woodman appears to want: a seat at the table where the division's contenders discuss one another seriously.

One win does not make a promotion push, and nobody at Bromley will be suggesting otherwise. But as opening statements go, a 1-0 victory at Barnsley is about as clear as they come. The third tier has a new voice, and it has already asked to be heard.

Frequently asked

What was the result between Barnsley and Bromley on the opening day of the League One season?
Bromley won 1-0 away at Barnsley to get their League One campaign off to a positive start.
What did Bromley manager Woodman say after the win at Barnsley?
Woodman said he hoped opposing teams would now show Bromley respect following their opening-day victory at Barnsley.
How are Bromley getting on in League One this season?
Bromley opened their League One season with a 1-0 away win at Barnsley, keeping a clean sheet on the road in their first fixture.