Ritchie finally has the monkey off his back

Like all AFCB fans I was pleased to see Matt Ritchie get his first goal of the season at Birmingham. I still don't expect it will prevent Sky from showing endless replays of his free kick against Brighton last season ahead of this year's fixture at Dean Court. It's been quite a year for the Cherries' winger and he can now concentrate on just playing his game now that he has get off the mark for this season.

Is Matt going to come up with another special goal for the cameras?

None of the other team members celebrate a goal quite like Matt Ritchie. I am not sure if he knows what he is doing but he has such joy in netting that it is a hard task for anyone to catch up with him after he has scored. I can't say that he has missed lots of chances this campaign. Some of his spectacular long range shots simply have been kept out most of the time by some good keeping. But it is important that Matt has scored and feels that he has contributed to the team's performance.

I do believe the way that Simon Francis has been pushing up has meant that Matt does not always join in quite as many attacks as he might otherwise. It is often Matt that sends the pass through to start off Simon's run along the right wing and that can leave Matt back in midfield when the attack is going ahead at fast pace. Matt has been very involved in the corner taking though and with so many short corners being taken it is likely that he might up his score rate from getting some success in such set pieces. On free kick duty there is any number of players that AFCB can rely on though. If Yann Kermorgant comes back into the team he seems to get first option, while Pitman and Harte are also specialists when it comes to dead ball situations. 

Knowing Matt though, I think the other players will find it hard to keep him off the ball now. He has tasted success and a confident player likes to put the ball in the back of the net again and again, once he has broken his duck. I'd back Matt to be featuring on a few more Sky replays in the next few days. Look out Brighton!