Howe can see positives despite defeat

It is never easy to think positively having seen your team suffer a defeat away from home. The mood of the camp is always a fragile thing and while AFCB went down to a 2:1 defeat at Leicester there is no need to feel that our bubble has burst or that Bournemouth are not a good team. I believe AFCB are turning into a very strong Championship outfit. Eddie Howe is confident that there have been some very good signs in the last two games which were against two of the best teams in the division.

Eddie has created the foundations of a
good team and there is lots to build on.

The first thing is that AFCB stayed in the game at Leicester. They came from behind to equalise and kept fighting with 10-men, when they were up against a home side who have only dropped two points at home all season. I felt that Francis and Daniels could not push forward like we see them do so often at home and this blunted our usual edge. Still it was necessary because Leicester were so powerful going forwards. Leicester were better than Forest in my opinion, because their defence did not really make a mistake all afternoon. Bournemouth struggled not to give the Leicester forwards some opportunities and the ball never quite ran for us in the areas where we needed a bit of luck to get a clear shot in.

However, AFCB even tried to get a goal when they went down to 10-men. There is something about losing a man on the pitch that also makes you stronger as a group. Everyone relied on each other. I saw Cook signal to Pugh to go our and cover one of Leicester's players in defence which he duly did and all of the team tried to cover the gaps. We could have seen their heads go down and been on the end of another heavy defeat, but I don't see that soft under belly anymore when AFCB are playing at these bigger stadiums. They have a confidence to stick in there and it will help them when they get ahead of teams, because they will feel so much stronger when they are a goal up with a full compliment of players. 

Eddie Howe changed things around to three at the back on Saturday, so that we still had an attacking threat. The team has already shown that they can cope when they are a man down and a goal down. 

Bournemouth fans at Leicester.

The only statistic I did not like in the Leicester game was how many saves Kasper Schmiechel had to make. That is something we need to develop, because if we can make the oppositions goalkeeper do more work AFCB will cause the opposition to defend more. I am not sure when the next set of easy matches are due for our team, if ever, but at least we have a home game next Saturday and no matter who AFCB play at home it will be a game when the team should aim to give the opposition keeper a very busy work out.
You'll see Michael Dunne has released a new All Departments' Kangeroo Court on Leicester v AFCB - see All Departments website or listen on Cherry Chimes by scrolling down the side bar until you get to Kangeroo Court.