Expect a full house and plenty of passion for Brentford game

I had a sneak peak at the Bees website this week to see that they had sold 1226 of their tickets our of an allocation of 1326 by Monday 11 August. By Wednesday this week that had sold out. I remember going to Griffin park a couple of seasons ago and think my goodness what a lot of noise they make and I am sure we will all see and hear them on Saturday with them coming down in good numbers. This game should see some quality football from both sides who like to see the ball played quickly on the floor. Having not seen the pre-season friendlies at Dean Court this summer it will be my first glimpse of the raised pitch and I'm really looking forward to a good atmosphere.

The feeling I got from reading reports on the Bees blogs like Beesoted and the club's official blog had a long interview with Stuart Dallas pointed towards a bit of disappointment about the point against Charlton Athletic in their first game. As a newly promoted club I can understand that. You want to get away to a good start and it will now be interesting to see how they tackle an away match. As we know, away games were the Cherries' weak point at the start of last season, and Brentford may be very wary of a Bournemouth team that usually scores plenty of goals at Dean Court. Would a point away at AFCB be seen as a good point for them? 

I am hoping that Eddie Howe spares Brentford no niceties on the pitch and looks to put them under pressure from the start. I don't expect the kind of start AFCB had for their last game but if the Cherries can again get that first goal it is more likely to be a good day for us. I am a bit more nervy of Brentford's battling spirit and I believe they will come with a number of special moves for their set-pieces. Against Huddersfield, Bournemouth did defend a reasonable amount in their own box even if they won the game well. The Terriers had seven corners to Bournemouth's four. That would indicate that the team did okay at defending corners and there were a few set-plays from free kicks, but Huddersfield certainly got a few crosses in that caused some moments of alarm in AFCB's box. From long range as well we only saw one shot that really troubled Camp which hit the bar.

Looking forward to being outside the Goldsands stadium again?

At home though it should be AFCB that are looking to make space and have that creative element to breakdown the Bees. From what I have seen in pre-season and in the Huddersfield game, this Bournemouth side will ask the questions. It may need a midfielder coming from deep or a quality cross to open the door, but I hope that AFCB fans can be patient and hold their nerve as the team can't be expected to win every game as well as it did last weekend.

It is a difficult kind of pressure that is on the team this season. There is certainly no fear of playing any team, but there is a fear of not performing that the players will have to deal with on some occasions. If it is a scrappy match with a scrappy goal we'll take that of course, but Eddie will want the team to keep to those high standards we saw at Huddersfield and that in itself is a pressure that not only the players but us fans have to get used to in what will be a boisterous atmosphere. 

If you have already forgotten how well AFCB played in the first match of the season take a look at the cartoon match report now up on HTFC-World by Daniel Gee who appeared on Rival Lines last week (mind the strong language!). Also, well done Simon Francis who signed a new three-year contract with the Cherries yesterday.