The Cherries have had darker hours than this

While matters on the pitch have not been going well they are not really anything like the days when AFCB were 45 minutes from going out of the league. A couple of 5-1 hammerings has made it difficult to go into work with a smile on the face, but take a second and look at where AFC Bournemouth are playing. These are not quite little teams AFCB are up against are not from the backwaters. They are teams that are playing in European Cup competitions and they know how to punish teams that are fragile.

The Liverpool performance should have blown some of the cobwebs away now and it can be viewed as a bit of a fresh start on Sunday against Southampton. For the Cherries it should be work as usual. Some top teams were going to batter them. The good thing is that the Cherries had a big hand in their own downfall on both occasions, and so there are things that they themselves can put right to get better results. It is not that AFCB were out played and simply overstretched by the skill of Man City or Spurs, they handed goals to these teams and their strikers simply accepted what was on offer. Against Southampton they have to do better.

Artur has to conquer his demons, but perhaps with his thigh injury he is best to keep
out of the limelight for a bit to gather his thoughts and his form again..

While Liverpool did not have their full first team out in the League Cup there was a reasonable amount of Premier League experience in their side compared to the Cherries and there was lots to take away from that game. It's time to look forward now and to see what AFCB can achieve against their near rivals. Being an away fixture is probably a good thing as it will be fresh scenery at St Mary's and hopefully a good vibe around the pitch being a derby. The players need to feed on that and look at the history of when the clubs in head to heads as they will see our fans are in need of a smattering of success against the Saints.


Probable AFCB team: (4-4-1-1) Federici, Francis, Cook, Distin, Daniels, Ritchie, Arter, Surman, Pugh, King, Murray.

Bench: Allsop, Bennett, Cargill, Gosling, Smith, Stanislas, Tomlin


Look out tomorrow for the Cherry Chimes' November Newsletter which brings you the best stories on the blog and the thoughts behind them from last month, plus there is a special Newsletter article about whether AFCB should set a target: 17 points by Xmas?

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