There was a comforting feel good factor that ran through Saturday's victory over Bury FC, AFCB managed to score four goals. It's something that home fans have not seen since the 4: 1 win against Oldham Athletic back in November last year. While the Cherries have been among the leading goal scorers for this season in League One, since the start of February the team had only scored three goals in home matches. Those goals came against Portsmouth and Doncaster Rovers.
What was especially pleasing was that AFCB had four different scorers on Saturday in Pitman, Ritchie, Arter and Tubbs. Spreading the goals around is something that the team has managed fairly well this season. Pitman now joins Grabban in 13 goals at the top of the table for AFCB goalscorers this season and I'd bet on Brett being at the top of the pile come mid-May.
Of course goals now have another value when looking the the tight League One Table. Bournemouth have not got the best goal difference with Swindon Town far ahead on a massive goal difference of 34, but AFCB should aim to close up on Sheffield Utd's 17 goal difference. If goal difference means the difference of playing at home first or second in a play-off match then we have seen how it helps to be at home for the second game when we played Huddersfield two seasons ago.
Some commentators have said the team are silly to talk about automatic promotion any more and they could be right, but nobody knows that yet. It was always said that points on the board are best to have at this stage of the season rather than games in hand. I can understand that often quoted phrase as fixture congestion is going to take its toll on some of the teams in the coming weeks and the pressure to get results is really on now. Bournemouth have not got the worry of fixture congestion and if they win their remaining games it will be a big total for other teams to overcome.
There is no need to be negative at this stage. Yes we have less games to go than our rivals for promotion. A few more wins and a better goal difference will put AFCB in contention with those looking to sneak a place in the Championship. Games in hand do not mean points in the bag and some of the challenging teams at the top of the table still have to play each other.
Let's just wait and see how many points we can get. We are not even 100 per cent certain of being in a play-off place yet. UTCIAD!
This is a fan’s personal view of AFC Bournemouth from the outside looking in. It reports on the daily official activities reported by the club and comments made by individual fans on social media and fanbase websites. Life as an AFCB fan is never dull. As a life-long supporter of the Cherries, it is the friendliness of the staff, fans and my enthusiasm for the club that inspired me to write this blog.
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