Making home advantage count

As I was unable to give you a full match report on the Blackburn game you may have worked out that I am away on my hols for a while, but I'll keep putting up stories as best I can. You may find I am in more reflective mood than usual.

AFCB will aim to make Dean Court a very hard place for any team to come to this season. Making the home advantage count though will need everyone to play their part. While Eddie Howe was pleased with the first home crowd against Brentford I thought we did go quiet for spells of the game, but the last 10 minutes of crowd support were certainly instrumental in helping the team get the win. The 10,000 plus crowd was slightly expectant of a win and those voices needed to sing loud to get the team over the line. The crowd support was on a different level though for the Forest game when we all knew AFCB needed our full support, but it was unlucky that that was not enough lift the team to a win. 

The new pitch at dean Court looked absolutely amazing
for the first game. An excellent job by all those involved
in preparing the new pitch.

Much of the advantages for Bournemouth playing at home though can clearly be seen. The pitch looks immaculate and better then my front room carpet, while even the edges of the pitch now have a synthetic matting to help Steve Cook get up some pace for his long range throws. I have to wonder with Kris Temple whether the pitch is slightly narrower this season even if Eddie Howe is keen to say it is "an optical illusion," slightly tongue in cheek.

What I did find was that AFCB did not find as much space as perhaps they would have liked in the match against Brentford. Looking back at that game, it was the wingers that decided the game the decisive run from Fraser was to threaten to come inside the full back rather than keep the width and I wonder if Bournemouth's play did not see as many crosses might have been possible. Certainly when Kermorgant went up for a header in the second half of that game and brought a challenge from Button the ball that fell to Wilson could of ended up being the first goal, but how many times had we seen high balls into Kermorgant during the 90 minutes? I would venture that it was no more than three of four times, but such a ball also led to Pugh's goal in the first game against Huddersfield when the ball went over Kermorgant's leap.

Kermorgant has such great heading ability that it
would be great to see more crosses for him at home.

So while AFCB used their wingers to good effect at home in the end I am hoping to see more crosses that Kermorgant can feed off of in the box. It's important that AFCB vary its attacks but when Callum's Wilson's pace was not bringing rewards a change in attacking play with delivery from wide areas to Kermorgant in the air is something that Eddie Howe knows works well.