Elphick must be wondering when his luck will turn

The Cherries put in another great performance yesterday at the iPro stadium. Tommy Elphick was chief among those playing well and putting in a captain's performance but he was absolutely furious to see Mr Mark Heywood give a free kick for his tackle on Will Hughes in the second half as the match looked destined for a draw. Yet again AFCB were to be denied a result that their play probably deserved.

Tommy Elphick needs he pre-match routine to
 start bring him some luck.

There was an instant reaction from Tommy that he got the ball. You don't often see him react in such a way and he felt that there was an injustice. Looking at the incident on playback it is difficult to see what the referee objected to if the rule of the game is that you are able to tackle if the ball is won cleanly, even if the opposition player goes over. At this rate it is not going to be long before tackling is taken out of the game completely.

Eddie Howe rarely says anything about referees, but yesterday you knew that he was very disappointed with the officials performance and his decision on the Tommy Elphick challenge that led to the goal. Eddie felt that the referee had been indecisive all day. When he did make a decisive decision it put the Cherries on the end of a spectacular free kick from Chris Martin. I take nothing away from the goal it was superbly hit and Lee Camp was a mere spectator.

Tommy will hope for better luck at Dean Court next week.

Some will say that such things even themselves out over the season, but I don't really think they do. There are lucky teams and unlucky teams and it's clear in which category AFCB are in at the moment. It is one thing to be beaten by a better team and another to have a result taken away from you in part because of an official's decision. It would be nice to hear what Mr Heywood thinks of his decision now, but I suspect that referees don't like to look back at controversial decisions. We move on.