Cherries done with 'two sucker punches'

Eddie Howe was complimentary of his players even though they let slip a 1-0 lead at home against Nottingham Forest. While he would have been confident of success after the first half chances that his team created, the second period looked to be all set up for a Bournemouth home win when Callum Wilson put the Cherries up, but it was not to be.

It all looked good and ordered at the start.

Eddie said "We were dominant from start to finish. I thought we were very, very good. We should have been two or three up by half time, no doubt. We had great movement, some great interplay in and around the box. It was just the finishing touch that was missing.

"We got the goal and you thought that was that. Forest hadn't offered any attacking threat and then we got hit with two sucker punches."

That might be a bit unflattering to Forest who could have found themselves with a huge deficit before half time but they managed to keep Bournemouth's strikers out, and they were always in the game when AFCB could not get a two goal lead. I felt that Pearce changed things around well at half time and got his ball winners more involved in central midfield. But what troubled AFCB was firstly a set-piece and when the central defenders don't make contact with the ball the wing backs don't always seem to win the headers. Even though Assombalonga did not look that comfortable he managed to get enough on the ball to head it hard and down into the ground and whether Lee camp thought Eunan O'Kane would get a clearance in is hard to tell, but Camp was not able to get across in time. It looked a soft goal to me and one that could have been defended better.

The second goal was also one which Eddie Howe said cold have been prevented as it came from a cross that he had been explaining in training all week that the team must try and block. So while the Cherries are not going to stop every cross, it is that ball which goes over the central defenders and leaves a striker against a full back facing goal that is so dangerous. This time Adam Smith could not stop Matt Fryatt who had a pretty simple task to score if you watch the clip back.

The Cherries defence had been good in the first two matches but not without some moments when Huddersfield and Brentford could have scored. In those matches they got a way with a few things, but against Forest they only offered a couple of chances and Forest took them both. What made it annoying was that AFCB fans know that Forest are capable of that, but for most of the game the opposition did not look like they were going to get such a chance, let alone two great chances to score! In the end, you have to say things balance themselves up because AFCB really got out of jail against Brentford but got nothing for a great overall performance against Forest. It's a strange old game.