What pleased me was the way in which Eddie Howe went about the game. AFCB could not field as string aside as Eddie would have liked. We then had Ryan Fraser pull up in the warm up with a tight hamstring. All the omens were hardly positive, but Bournemouth tried to keep the ball and pass their way to safety and early on the rewards came very fast with the two penalties that Pitman calmly put away.
In future games, Eddie may have a word to his players when they get into similar positions because it probably came as a bit of a surprise to be costing two up in less than quarter of an hour. The players have to start looking at the table and believing that they are that good, because they really are. They could roll over many more teams in this division if they can play to a tempo and passing rhythm that hurts the opposition and I believe they will get even better.
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| Ryan did not feel he would do justice to himself if he had played in the Middlesbrough match after feeling his thigh during the warm up. |
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| Let's hope Ryan's thigh problem was just a twinge. |
Eddie Howe admitted before a ball was kicked at the Riverside that, "anything we get here is a bonus because they are a top side and they've spent a lot of money building what they think will be a Premier League challenging side this year for them. And we've come away from home and done ourselves proud."
Completely agree, which is worrying, it's becoming a regular occurrence, I'll be losing my title as an old misery at this rate!!
ReplyDeleteIt's very similar to last season, we had the ability to pass teams off the park, but only saw it in flashes. The same now, this squad is very capable of doing this, and that's with many crucial players missing, which makes Saturday all the more outstanding. Of cause, opposing managers will change tactics to counter our dominance, and that can result in what possibly happened at Middlesbrough. Trying to be generous to certain comments being made by a number of supporters, whilst I'm still pinching myself that we're not only IN The Championship, but doing a fine job of holding our own, yet like others I think there is an element of frustration, knowing that we really ARE capable of performing as has been explained already. So with my generous head on, I'm hoping the comments are a frustration and not out and out criticism, because THAT would be too ludicrous!!
UTCIAD
I am worried now. I don't expect fans to agree with much that I say. I'll have to be more controversial! Seriously though, I can't see why any AFCB fan should be critical of the team at the moment unless they are wearing rose tinted glasses and expected the team to storm the league. I just hope we can keep the good performances up as well as the points. Yeovil seem to play well and get nothing in the way of points.
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