Adam Smith will hope for more minutes

It did go a little unnoticed that Adam Smith managed to get a few minutes on the pitch at the Valley to make his debut as a Bournemouth player in the Championship. It was probably in most fans minds that we would see him appear in a game when AFCB were winning or when a change at the back was needed because of injury, but Adam was no doubt pleased to take to the pitch anywhere to get his chance and he featured as a right wing midfielder.

Adam at the Valley.

We know Adam likes to get forward and his crossing ability was always good in his first spell with the Cherries. To see him brought on though in front of Coulibaly or MacDonald may have been a little surprising having seen O'Kane and Fraser leave the game, but Eddie Howe must have wanted to reward Adam with some game time as he has been patient. Whether it was a game changer move I am not so sure as Smith only had 7 minutes of normal time to impress and 4 minutes of extra time. But if you are a player that has been training hard for the last few weeks I bet any time is good in a match situation just to see yourself making progress. 

Smith will look for more minutes on the pitch.

I expect some will say that his appearance was not such a positive move near the end of the game and in hindsight a more attacking option could have been they way to go if the Cherries could have pushed Charlton back. Coulibaly had had some game time recently and so I expect Eddie felt that Adam deserved a go, especially if the match looked in his mind and mine that it would peter out to a nil-nil draw. Smith's introduction could have helped reinforce that score line in Howe's mind but this time Charlton managed to get an advantage that counted in the end.

For Adam's sake I hope he does get some more minutes and gets to be part of a positive result so that he is confident that he is part of the team that is doing well. That could come as early as Saturday for him and if so we wish him the best of luck.