Looking at the Championship table I can't argue with the teams that are above AFCB. Each of them has shown their quality and some of them directly against the Cherries. If Bournemouth are to think of doing more than just avoiding relegation and mid-table security they will have to press on against some of those teams in the top 10.
The first opportunity will come away from home with both Nottingham Forest and Leicester City. Both of them are unbeaten at home, so the task facing Bournemouth couldn't be much harder in their next two fixtures. Top of the table though are Burnley and you just wonder where Bournemouth would be in the table if they had signed Danny Ings in the summer. I am kind of looking forward to that game on 9 November, but it would help if some teams could dent Burnley's confidence a bit before then. They are simply flying.
Just behind Burnley are QPR who have been consistent in not letting in hardly any goals and winning by the odd mistake at the other end. While Harry Redknapp may seem to have some kind of magic over opposition teams, I believe it is more the talent of QPR's players who have the know how to turn draws into victories and just do enough before shutting up shop.
AFCB have already played Watford and Blackpool and we have seen their quality up close. Watford are one of the teams I do expect to be there or thereabouts come May and another is Reading who are just ahead of us. Reading are quietly going about their business. They have a very strong squad and if they can get some momentum going they will be hard to stop.
Unlocking the door against these quality teams is the next task for the Cherries. It feels like climbing Mount Everest, but the boys are up for the challenge and while we may receive more heavy away defeats I believe we will also turn one or more of these teams over in the coming months if the team can fully apply itself. If they manage that we could be in dream land come the new year and could be looking down on more teams than the club is at the moment. My advice is: keep with the team, it's only going to get more interesting.
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.
I was never under any illusions before the season started, let alone now. We've been on the end of a couple of tonkings, Blackburn was far from satisfactory, yet we're in a good position. However, this has been achieved with several Big players missing through injury, predominantly Ritchie. So with a fit Daniels, and Ritchie back some time soon I hope, along with several others, these very difficult games will be a good test to see exactly how good are we and how far we've come. We may hold our own and grab a point here and there, maybe we'll suffer more heavy defeats, either way in a few weeks we should have a pretty good idea as to where our season might be heading. I have to be honest, I can see us giving a good account of ourselves, and IF we're close to the play off's come Christmas, I can see Maxim saying to Eddie, go spend some money!!! What ever, it will just be great to have some football back again, with NO speculation and NO football, it's been an incredibly boring time LOL... UTCIAD
ReplyDeleteI am really looking forward to the Forest, Leicester and Bolton games coming up. We might not get any points but if we do AFCB will have cemented their place in the top 10 and that is a massive achievement the longer we go into the season. I only predicted we would finish 15th so Eddie Howe and the team are doing brilliantly as far as I am concerned at the moment, especially with all the injuries.
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