A tough run-in for the Cherries

All the papers and football columnists are pointing out that AFCB have the toughest of run-ins for the 2015-16 season. Sky Sport's review of the fixtures points out that the Cherries could not have had it much harder in the months of April and May. Yet, seen from another angle there is potential that an easier (if we can call it that) start to the season could even put the Cherries among the front runners with the Premier League site announcing that AFCB offer early value. It all tells me that it is perhaps not so easy to predict what is likely to happen next season as the teams may all be a lot closer than they have been in recent years. 

It is no real surprise to be underdogs again..

While you don't want to be going to Old Trafford of all places on the last day of the season needing to win to have a chance of staying up, we'll all hope that the Cherries are more than safe by then. With Liverpool, Chelsea and Man Utd in AFCB's last five matches though it could have worked out kinder for the latter stages of the season. We have seen many strange results though at that time of the year and there will be pressure on right from the start in every game to get points. It is not the last five or six games that should concern the team at the moment it is the 38 fixtures ahead of them.

Jeff Mostyn has been quick to back Eddie Howe and Jason Tindall in their plans to keep AFCB in the Premier League and I already sense that there will be a backs to the wall mentality about this team that will enjoy beating some of the bigger names of English football, but won't get carried away. The Cherries will hope that most managers and chairmen right them off and think of them as easy pickings, but I don't expect any team visiting Dean Court to find it an easy game and away from home the Cherries have shown last season how they enjoy the big occasion. Soon it won't be about words though, but simply about what the players do on the pitch. We can speculate all we want about how many points the Cherries will need and when they need to get them but there will be many stories to come in what should be the most exciting season in the club's history.