The Cherries were near the bottom for clean sheets

I've been looking at those stats again on the Football League website. It is always good to know where you club is compared to others in achieving its targets and there are some areas where improvements are clearly needed if AFCB are to reach a top six place next season. Among those areas has to be the number of clean sheets that are returned. Last season AFCB were placed in just equal 22nd place when it came to stopping opponents from scoring with only Birmingham and Barnsley recording fewer clean sheets. 

AFCB totalled 9 matches where they stopped the opposition from scoring. If the club is still letting in too many goals then perhaps the defence is an area where the Cherries will be wise to spend some cash this coming season. Some fans have said to me well who would you drop? Francis, Elphick, Cook and Daniels are perhaps the front line choices and even when they have all played AFCB have still let in a good number of goals. The style of Bournemouth's play is going to allow some teams to get in when the Cherries have pushed forward with their wing backs but I believe AFCB conceded even more goals from free kicks and corners. One individual cannot be singled out and it is how well the back five play together that counts as well as those in front of them.

While Elliot Ward, Ian Harte and Adam Smith are players that have been brought in to make the defence stronger it will be interesting to see if another big name can be attracted to the club. The one signing that has already made a huge difference is Lee Camp, but even Lee can't save the Cherries every time. 

As for the top of that clean sheet table, it may surprise you that Brighton were top on 20, while the strength of Burnley's defence is clearly see with their 19 clean sheets and Leicester (18), QPR  (17), while Middlesbrough are had 17. With AFCB having half as many clean sheets as these teams, perhaps the defence is the area where Eddie Howe and Jason Tindall can tighten up over the summer. 

World Cup Fever - plan ahead
World Cup fever is starting to set in now but are you fully prepared? If you are not sure where to go to see the game why not go down to De Vere's Urban Village Hotel in Bournemouth? The sponsors of Cherry Chimes have some World Cup big carnival days that they'd like to share with you, starting off this a special event for the World Cup opener.

Carnival Days
Thursday 12th June, First game of the tournament.

Brazil V Croatia
- Live DJ, Brazilian Carnival Dancers & children’s face painting.
- Entertainment commencing from 18.00, kick off at 21.00

Food service extension
- The Victory will be serving food until 22.00 for the entire duration of the world cup with the exception of England’s first game (Saturday 14th June) which will be until 23.00.

Download the complete game planner for the Victory pub and kitchen.
In addition, you can now join the World Cup Fantasy Mini League I have set up on McDonald's FIFA World Cup fantasy League. It is free to play. The league is called Chimes Fans which you can put in the search after you have built your squad. The website is found on this link - World Cup Fantasy League.