Pass them off the park

Both Eddie Howe and Willo remarked on how well AFCB had gone about their task at Middlesbrough. It was not a case of parking the bus, but a real attempt to pass them off the pitch. Are AFCB becoming the Arsenal of the Championship?

Working on keeping possession.

The first 15-20 minutes were a lesson in keep ball from the commentary I have heard and teams in the Championship are not going to find it easy to stay with a team that can confidently build from the back and string 20 or 30 passes together while having an end product on the end of it. That is where this team now is and with Rantie and Grabban in razor sharp form, AFCB will be a match for any team in the division before long.

The Cherries are not just picking up points by holding teams away from home. They are trying to raid teams of all three points and it is a bold, and at the moment, rewarding game plan which has resulted in those heavy mauling early on but the players are now learning to plug those holes and punish other teams for their failings. As a project in progress I am more than a little excited. Early days it may be but AFCB are at the top end of the table and not in the bottom six where I probably expected them to be at this stage. 

So what is next? We have some heavyweight teams to front up against in the next few weeks and I'm really looking forward to it. A lot of these teams have big pitches like the Riverside and that really suits the Cherries game.

Some teams would not play four of five passes in and around their own box but AFCB are taking on the challenge and opening up teams by sucking them in and breaking with deadly pace.

For those of our like me missing out on the England Ladies' international at the Goldsands Stadium, there was a dance competition for mascots at the weekend and Eddie Bear ended up winning! Some pictures of the mascot competition are on Robert & Stephen's Corner.