Below par Cherries beaten at Elland Road

Eddie Howe pointed towards the Cherries being rather off their game and below par at Elland Road but that they should have still got something from the match. "We were not our bright and bubbly selves, but it was not everyone," said Eddie Howe.

For once the Cherries did not start that well and when that happens it does sometimes take them a while to get their passing into gear. For whatever reason, Leeds seem very good at bustling AFCB out of their stride and making the game go to their tune. You have to credit the fact that Leeds had a game plan and stopped AFCB from playing well. A single strike from Luke Murphy did all the damage in the 36th minute.

Eddie Howe could not quite turn this match around enough after half time.

"We didn't play as well as we can do but we still should have one the game," said Eddie. "It was nothing to do with systems. We were below par, probably for the first half an hour." 

Eddie thought the team was short of where it should be physically on the night and that may well cause him to rethink what he can get out of the players having had hard games against Norwich and then two away matches in the space of three days.

What is evident though is that AFCB were not overly stretched for much of the second half and they had a day when they found their shooting boots had been left at home. Keeping an average of more than two goals a game is not something that you can rely on and barring one great strike the team would have got a clean sheet on most evenings like this.

 Elland Road was never going to be a place where AFCB were going to find it easy though."It's a tough place to come when you're not at your best," said Eddie.