Was Ipswich Ritchie's best game yet?

Matt Ritchie was one of the best players on the pitch against Ipswich in my book. He not only scored but was a lively threat all game for the Cherries and was involved in just about all of the team's good work. There are times when you don't get a full 90 minutes out of Matt but he was superb in this match and he more than lasted the distance.

Matt pushed up his season's goal stats to two but was unlucky not to get more.

Matt's first big contribution came in the first few minutes with his shot against the bar. While he beat the keeper he was unlucky not to see the shot go in. He was always keen to receive the ball and moved with his usual great pace, but even more pleasing was his desire to get shots off. If he had just met a cross a bit better a few moments later after Bournemouth had already scored he would also have doubled the lead.

I felt his goal could have been almost been another missed chance as time stood still for a while when Callum Wilson tricked his way pass three Ipswich defenders and levelled the cross at Ritchie's feet. The winger had to get the ball under control before he could direct it towards goal and the Ipswich players were closing him down pretty swiftly. I am still not quite sure how he sqeezed the ball past Mings on the line but it was just in the nick of time that Ritchie got his shot away.

That Ritchie kept going was shown in extra time when he put in the cross down the right for a moment that Brett Pitman will probably want to forget. If only Brett had leaned forward rather than back it is quite likely that Bournemouth would have been celebrating another home win. Still the players recorded another unbeaten game and Ritchie was one of the big positives in this match.

If you look over on Kyle's Cups you'll find that Kyle Cotter has a preview of Everton's Europa league games coming up the first is against Vfl Wolfsburg this Thursday and in December they face FK Krasnodar.