How to approach these last two home games?

The fixtures against Sheffield Wednesday and Bolton Wanderes will be separated by nine days which is a lot of time when your team is trying to win the Championship. If Eddie Howe treats the period like another mini-international break the omens are good for AFCB as they have been gathering the points both into and coming out of such breaks. The message has been clear to the fans that the players are going to out to win all the remaining games and that should mean attack from the start.

Simon Francis knows this is his chance to get to the Premier League.

Simon Francis was pleased to say that the team had corrected its recent slow starts against Birmingham and Brighton and that it came out with more intent at Reading which brought the early reward of a goal. It is not that often that the team have had to come from behind but when they can get ahead it does allow them to control the game and, even though this almost ran into trouble at Reading when they could not get the second goal, it was evident that the players still wanted to keep passing around the back despite being pressed back.

The pressure can effect people in different ways and it is important that Eddie Howe and his team know exactly how all the players are feeling now, both physically and mentally. While us fans might not be holding up that well, Eddie is probably having to make the most important decisions of his managerial life over the next couple of weeks and I hope someone is also giving him plenty of support. I believe so because the whole club is very good at supporting each other as we saw at the end of the Reading match.

Eddie also talked about this being in uncharted waters for the club and that can also be a bonus when you are just meeting every challenge head on and coming out on top. I would rather the team go out and think only about the opposition in front of them and know that a win will earn them the points they need rather than playing safe and hoping other clubs do them a favour. 

These players have been courageous all season and I don't see them changing course now. It should be full out attack at home and let's see if AFCB can score more than the opposition. Vocally I know AFCB fans can out sing any visiting team and that should also help the lads more than ever now.

Make sure you check out my interview with Inside-72 on the Championship Run-in. There is quite a big match tonight which could put either Norwich or Middlesbrough virtually out of the race for automatic promotion, the way the wins keep piling up for others at the top of the table.

A special thank you!
I just wanted to thank all of you regular readers that keep coming back to see what I have been writing on Cherry Chimes. I consider it a real privilege to write about this club and the fans that have been tremendous to me. Yesterday, your enthusiasm reached the point where we went passed half-a-million (500,000) views on Cherry Chimes' pages which is just incredible in just over two years since its start. Thank you so much for your support and keep reading - I think we have some exciting times ahead of us. UTCIAD!