Wednesday 1 October 2014

Are the best Championship sides still a notch above AFCB?

Eddie Howe remarked on how Derby County were the better side on the night as they earned their 2-0 victory at the iPro stadium. The Rams were regarded by the Cherries manager as the better passing side on the night and in such light it is arguable that AFCB still have a little way to go to really upset the best sides in the Championship as their league position would also indicate.
AFCB are getting closer to the top teams in performance
terms but have to do more if they are to pick up more points.
Being work in progress though is not such a bad thing and Eddie Howe has always said so far that this team is not the finished article. You can say that the side was unlucky to see Lee Camp sent off and have to play with 10 men for the last 20 minutes at Derby, but that is when you need players to give that little bit extra to try and save a point. Whether the goal leading up to Lee Camp's sending off should have been given or not, the fact is that it was an incident that turned the game and AFCB were caught out, which is to Derby's credit.

The aim must be to try and get AFCB to the level of Derby County and to weather the storms when the chips are down and favouring the opposition. If the Cherries had have escaped with a point it would have been one of the best performances of the season, but instead we are left with a talking point about a referee's decision to disallow a goal and send a player off for intentional handball. 

The disappointing fact from Eddie Howe's point of view should be that the Cherries are not yet as strong as some of the best teams in the league, and it is likely to take a little longer for adjustments to be made before the team is going to such grounds and taking all the points. I don't feel that the Cherries are far away from doing that, but it is going to need more work on the training pitches before some of the results come that we all know this team is capable of getting and finding that consistent winning streak. It's simply work in progress and not major reconstruction that needs to be done. We look forward to the next challenge and learn from this result.

5 comments:

  1. to be honest, neither side can feel hard done by, as a Derby fan I was furious, I would much rather have a goal and no red card, and obviously Bournemouth fans seem like they would have preferred that too. The problem for Derby was we are then sat at 0-0 facing 10 men behind the ball, which is notoriously difficult to break down.

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  2. Another Derby fan here. I thought both sides cancelled each other out for the most part. Had the goal stood and the red card not given, I believe we would have gone on to score again as our problem is with getting the break through in the first place. That said I was really impressed with Bournemouth and they are certainly the best team we have played this season. Most teams set out to stifle us and hope to catch us on the counter and I feared you would last night. So it was good to see you attack at every opportunity and that approach will win you many points and friends along the way. I expect to see you make a strong push for the play off's at the very least.

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  3. As a Derby fan may I say that I see AFCB as a team that will finish in the top half at the end of the season, and why, because that master tactician Eddie Howe is your manager.

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  4. Another Derby fan here. I remarked to my mate last night that it was refreshing to see an opposition team come to Pride Park and try to play proper football. You were defensively very organised yet ambitious enough in possession. Keep at it and I'm sure you will move up the table soon, i'll be looking out for AFCB's results from now on. All that said, Derby were the better side last night and deserving of the win over all and like others had remarked we'd take the goal and no red card every time - I don't know what the ref was playing at/

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  5. Thanks Derby fans for all the comments. Derby will set the standard this season and have a great squad.

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