Ritchie looks the complete Championship player

Eddie Howe was quick to credit the talent of Matt Ritchie after the Brighton match. His ability to score from just about anywhere on the pitch is something that other teams will look admiringly at. His crossing again was excellent and his running throughout the 90 minutes was superb for a player with hardly any game time under his belt at this time of the season. 

I do think that just having him on the pitch lifts AFCB players as they know he is capable of doing something magical at any moment. The skill and ability of Ritchie exudes confidence not only in him but to others that they can beat the opposition in front of them. His return to the starting line up could not come at a better time because AFCB are really going to need him against QPR and Reading this coming week.

Ritchie comes over to sign autographs before the Brighton match. 

Eddie Howe mentioned: "I think you can see the effect he had on the team today. He really did play well, not just his goal, but he is creative, he set chances up, his crossing is very good and he is an obvious goal threat. He gets himself in goal scoring positions, so the fact that he played 90 minutes is testimony to his performance levels, but I only had in mind 60 or 70 minutes for him, but I had to leave him on."

I was so pleased to see him score as he will now feel he really is back. It would have been even better if he had scored with the chance that came moments later, when he snuck in to the box and almost slotted home from about 8 yards, but it was not to be. The test will come if he and some of the other players are up to playing in two more games in the next six days. That is the Championship though - it's tough. 

AFCB are lucky that they have one of the stars of this league, but it won't be long before other teams also know it, if they don't already.

Pictures from around the ground yesterday are now on Match Day Gallery.

Ritchie takes AFCB to a higher level.