A little bit of competition hospitality at AFCB is very well received

I like to enter some of the competitions at AFCB from time to time. The club is pretty generous in trying to give supporters a chance to share in some prizes that they offer and like many of you out there I put my details in for the draw for hospitality tickets for the games until the end of the season. Bingo! My name came up and I was fortunate enough to be able to be bring a guest to the Huddersfield match and enjoy hospitality from the Top Floor Restaurant and to have a pre-match meal in a wonderful setting.

The Top Floor Restaurant was packed.

My son Stephen and I arrived at Dean Court at midday for the meal as it takes some time to feed all the guests that were quickly assembling for hospitality. At the front reception we were given our passes and promptly climbed the couple of flights of stairs to the restaurant where there was already a throng of people standing around the bar.

It was not the first time that I had been able to enjoy the hospitality at the club, but for my son it was his first glimpse to see how some people are able to be entertained in style before a match each week and I think he rather liked it. Once we had found our place with name tags that impressed Stephen, as it has competition winner clearly marked under his name, we were served our drinks and got chatting to the various people on our table. As dinner was served we tucked in and quickly cleared our plates of the sumptuous food - tiger prawn starter, cod fillet and a caramel chocolate ice cream bomb that all went down very well.

Baily gives his interview

Waitress service gets going.

It was then that we had a special appearance from Baily Cargill who was interviewed about his time on the pitch so far this season and his thoughts ahead of the Huddersfield game. Baily is currently injured but hoped to be back soon. He said: "To play in the Championship that is my main aim, that's what it has been since the start of the season. I'd like to achieve that, but if not I'm just going to be there to cheer the lads on."

Baily was in good form and was pleasingly entertaining in his dismissal of Huddersfield's chances for the match: "I don't think you get an easy game in the Championship. They'll be coming here trying to prove a point and trying to bounce back from their loss, but being confident in the lads today I think we'll wipe the floor with them if I'm honest." Sadly, it wasn't quite the Valentine's Day massacre we had hoped for but AFCB were in confident spirits which was good to hear.

Were those extra thick corner flags brought
in especially in case James Vaughan scored
with his corner flag kicking celebration?

The pitch was looking great.

The sprinklers give Huddersfield a soaking!

It's a bit of a wet start to the game for most of the players.

As the day moved and having put a couple of pounds on Harry Arter to score the first goal and for a 3-0 home win - I blame Bailey for my misplaced optimism - I vacated to top floor to take some match day pictures of the players and soon settled down into my customary season ticket seat in the stand to watch the game.

Sadly the competition winners don't get to sample the cakes that are put on at half time in hospitality, but at the end of the match Stephen and I raced back up stairs with our passes to hear what would be said post-match. We had to wait a while before the announcer said that Matt Ritchie was unable to do the presentations as the man of the match as he had suffered from some concussion and that Chairman Jeff Mostyn would kindly do the honours and say a few words on Matt's behalf.

Jeff is photoed with some of the match day sponsors.

Jeff starts to give his views on the match against Huddersfield Town.

Jeff Mostyn shares a joke or two to lift the post-match atmosphere.

All the sponsors were given a big thank you and the photographs were quickly taken before the assembled guests. Jeff could not hide his disappointment of the result on the day but was keen to point out that the Cherries would do all they can to try and get the results that the supporters want in the coming weeks. Having checked that no Huddersfield fans were around he quickly summed up his opinion on the game.

"It was a frustrating day....Going back into the board room he said the comments were that it was a game of two halves and I couldn't agree with them more it was - we dominated both of them! It was really frustrating today. I thought as always that the team played with incredible pace and incredible passion but box to box it was perfect, it was just that final pass that just didn't seem to go our way today," said Jeff.

"But you look back and we're all slightly disappointed, but we're top of the league and this is what we have to think about. There is a lot of football to be played between now and the end of the season and there's going to be a lot of ups and downs, not only with ourselves... you know it is having a great effect on me I'm 23 years of age! I think I've ages about 63 years this season alone, but it's incredible to have the support. I can't thank you enough for your amazing support, week in and week out ... and we're striving bring you what you deserve and that is Premier League football."