‘I received out the bathe and noticed Freddie was in purpose for Liverpool… I used to be blown away!’: Andy Woodman on his shock at his son Freddie’s Reds debut, their fairytale weekend and the way the keeper helps Mohamed Salah

It was only a quiet celebration for Andy Woodman on Saturday night, so he could not even blame a hangover for the state of puzzlement he found himself in when he stumbled out of a mid-afternoon shower on Sunday.

The manager of Bromley – the club that confirmed a second promotion in three years on Saturday and will soon be a League One team – had the Merseyside derby on the television while getting spruced up for a suit-and-tie night at the English Football League awards in London.

When he came out of the bathroom, he saw his son Freddie had been substituted on as Liverpool were forced to call upon their third-choice goalkeeper given an injury to No 2 Giorgi Mamardashvili, with No 1 Alisson also on the sidelines.

‘As much as you hope your son comes on in a Premier League game, you kind of get to the point where you don’t kind of expect it,’ Woodman Snr tells Daily Mail Sport the morning after deservedly picking up the League Two Manager of the Season award.

‘Weirdly enough, I just thought I’d jump in the shower and get my suit ready to start getting ready for the EFL awards. And then when I came out, I was watching the game and then the ball went to Fred’s end and I couldn’t believe he was in the goal!

‘I was blown away. You couldn’t have written the fact. I mean, of all the times for that to happen and all the games from his career! But it was a brilliant moment and it was a really proud moment for myself. I’m like, “Oh my God!”.

Andy Woodman led Bromley to promotion to League One on Saturday, won the League Two Manager of the Season award on Sunday night and inbetween saw his son, Freddie, make his Premier League debut for Liverpool

Freddie in action for Liverpool against Everton after coming on a substitute for Giorgi Mamardashvili

‘I was probably more nervous watching than Fred was actually dealing with it. But, I thought on the whole, coming on for his Liverpool debut in a big game, it showed what I’ve seen many, many times over the years: nerves of steel and calmness.’

It was a fairytale weekend for the Woodman family. The goalkeeper could not get through to his old man on the phone due to a lack of signal at the Grosvenor Park Hotel in Mayfair, the scene of the Football League awards, but was ‘chuffed to bits’ when they caught up on Monday.

Walking into the bear-pit of Hill Dickinson Stadium with a roaring atmosphere for the first-ever Merseyside derby there, when his team were under the cosh having just been pegged back at 1-1, must have been nerve-wracking in the extreme for Woodman Jnr.

But he is a level-headed chap and takes a lot of his humility from stories of his great-grandfather, who had to endure much more testing environments in his own career as a sailor who swept for naval mines on the shores of Normandy before the D-Day Landings.

The tales told from those days, plus a day trip to the Normandy beach in 2015 when away on England Under 19s duty, are special stories Woodman keeps in mind, reminding himself he is ‘just’ a footballer – people like his great-grandad are the real heroes.

It is this sort of humility that has served Woodman, for whom it was a Premier League debut for Liverpool on Sunday, well in his career. The Croydon-born shot-stopper, who is also contracted for next season, is third-choice at Anfield after a summer move from Preston.

Prior to that, he had made four top-flight appearances for Newcastle but has spent the majority of his career in the Championship, with two seasons at Swansea followed by three at Preston.

At 29, Woodman decided to take the step to becoming a third-choice keeper earlier than many might. Think Scott Carson at Manchester City, Rob Green at Chelsea, Tom Heaton at Manchester United or more recently Adrian at Liverpool – all have been at a more advanced stage of their careers.

At 29, Woodman decided to take the step to becoming a third-choice keeper earlier than many might. But he a well-liked character in the dressing room

Woodman is congratulated as Liverpool seal a dramatic victory in the Merseyside derby 

They have all been heralded as important figures and Woodman is no different. He is a well-liked character in the dressing room and often stays late at training to help Mohamed Salah with shooting drills or to practise free-kicks with others like Dominik Szoboszlai.

He is always seen on the pitch after games helping the likes of Andy Robertson with warm-downs and the left back said on Sunday: ‘Since he has come in, he (Freddie) has been unbelievable. He is always there for everyone.

‘These people in a club like this are so important. They don’t always get the credit they deserve and get the limelight, but when he walked back in the changing room he got a nice reception.’

His dad, meanwhile, played for teams such as Northampton, Brentford and Oxford United over a lengthy career and went on to become a goalkeeper coach at top-flight clubs Newcastle, West Ham, Crystal Palace and Arsenal.

‘Fred’s been mad about football since he was a kid,’ adds Woodman Snr. ‘Weirdly enough, he was a midfielder for many years. He really fancied himself as a midfielder. And as he had a growth spurt, getting around the pitch became a little bit trickier for him.

‘He looked more of a natural goalie and it was his mum, Anna, who sort of encouraged him to be in goal and took him to games everywhere because I was always playing. So as much on the outside I’ve had a lot to do with it, his mum was really big on him becoming a goalie.

‘He went to West Ham as a young kid and obviously she was driving him backwards and forwards. And she just saw he wasn’t enjoying it. She actually made a big decision on him going back to playing Sunday morning with his friends and enjoying it again. And it was a brilliant decision, really, because he went back in goal and he looked like himself and then the rest pretty much has been history.

‘We (Bromley) have got Salford on Thursday. So I’m hoping to catch up with Freddie on Friday and maybe get to the game on Saturday (Liverpool against Palace at Anfield), but it’s been an amazing, amazing weekend for us.

‘The football gods have certainly shone down on us this weekend! But I think Fred should get a lot of applause. There’s a lot of people on his journey that have helped him but I think the most important person has been Freddie. He’s kept a belief, he’s kept a work ethic and he’s always backed himself and I’m super proud of that.’

‘We (Bromley) have got Salford on Thursday,’ says Andy Woodman. ‘So I’m hoping to catch up with Freddie on Friday and maybe get to the game on Saturday (Liverpool against Palace at Anfield), but it’s been an amazing, amazing weekend for us’

‘Being third choice is more important than what I thought coming in. Mo Salah is coming to you and saying he wants to do extra shooting, it’s every kid’s dream’

Woodman Jnr made his Liverpool debut in the Carabao Cup defeat to Crystal Palace earlier this season and could feature against the Eagles again this weekend, subject to Alisson and Mamardashvili’s fitness with both being big doubts at the moment. It would be a full circle moment for the keeper who is a Croydon lad and grew up a Palace fan, with plenty of Selhurst Park season-ticket holders in his family.

Woodman Jnr was happy to conduct media duties this week and said: ‘Being third choice is, from what I’ve seen, more important than what I thought coming in. You are trying to have a relationship with the lads.’

He added: ‘It’s easy here! You know, Mo Salah is coming to you and saying he wants to do extra shooting, it’s every kid’s dream. I saw these guys last season as superstars. And you come in and you realise that they’re just normal blokes and they’re good people and it’s been really nice to build those relationships.

‘It would be unreal, incredible, to get another game in the Premier League and for Liverpool. I grew up supporting Palace, I was a ball-boy and played against them in the Carabao Cup.

‘Hopefully, I want Giorgi to be fine and then Ali, the best goalkeeper in the world, I want him to come back fit. Listen, we will see what happens on Saturday. I will just go about my stuff this week and prepare as if I am playing.’