The Cherries defend together

There was an anonymous comment put on the blog yesterday, which I did not agree with so I'll share my opinions with you all on the matter. It is always great to see comments on the blog, anonymous or not as everyone has an opinion. The subject concerned the winning goal that Charlton scored against Bournemouth the other night in the dying minutes of the game. The comment was made on my match report post that Yann Kermorgant had decided not to defend the corner and allowed his old team mate and Frenchmen Dorian Dervite to score the goal that gave Charlton their much needed three points.

Yann a Cherry though and through now.

I expect the person who made the comment went to the game as he/she says that Yann had a Charlton shirt underneath his Bournemouth top - something I was not aware of, but if they had been at the game they would have seen that Yann actually made at least two strong defensive headers in our box after he came on that got the Cherries out of trouble. With Yann on the pitch the defensive heading power of the team at set plays like corners and free kicks is stronger and not weaker from what I have seen. The incident in question is one that Eddie Howe will undoubtedly look at closely as he needs to see if it could have been defended better.

Heading practise before last Tuesday's game for the back four,
but everyone has to play their part in clearing danger.

There were quite a few players going up for the ball when it was played in from the left hand corner and while our defenders (three of them it looks like) did not get clean leaps, Dervite did get a bit of a run at the ball which made all the difference. I think it is harsh to appoint blame on any one player as the Cherries defended as a team each taking their player, but when you have a crowd of players it is not always easy to time your leap to perfection and others can get in your way. For once Lee Camp was not as hampered as he had been at Charlton corners early on in the game. On this occasion though he let his defenders try and deal with the cross and he was powerless to react in time to save the powerful header.   

Elliott Ward could be selected again soon for his defensive heading ability.

Elliott Ward is now available again and his heading strength may be an asset that he could feel he needs in the coming games against Barnely or Leeds. However, I felt that Steve Cook and Tommy Elphick won more than their fair share of headers all night against Charlton although their passing by foot on occasion was sometimes wayward on what was a difficult pitch to play on.

What I think Eddie Howe will be more concerned with is the fact that the team started to fall back and concede free kicks and corners late on in the game, which basically invited the Charlton pressure on to them. If it makes any one feel any better QPR suffered the same fate at the Valley only last month so it can happen to the best of teams, but please don't go blaming a player who won several headers for Bournemouth on the night and even took a nasty tumble against the hoardings but carried on any way for the sake of the team. Okay, rant over.    

You can listen to more discussion on the Charlton v AFCB game by listening to Michael Dunne's All Departments' Kangaroo Court by visiting All Departments or by scrolling down the right hand panel on Cherry Chimes to the All Departments' sound bar.