AFCB were unplayable for half an hour at the Stadium of Light

It's easy to see why Eddie Howe came out of the Sunderland match with some mixed feelings. At times in that first half the play by AFCB as good as it has been at any time this season. It was controlled passing with real purpose and Sunderland were 'all men to the pumps' at times just to stem the persistent flow of pressure. 

Sunderland's ground, picture taken by Tim Aston.

The early goal also kind of underlined the dominance and with Afobe in that kind of form the AFCB fans and Eddie Howe might have expected a bigger scoreline to soon appear. Sadly, the second goal did not come and that seems to be the main sticking point in games that the Cherries have to start capitalising on if they are to find their way to a higher finish in the table. The movement and the protection of the ball was there for all to see and the attacks just kept coming. 

Sam Allardyce was none to pleased and it was only the experience of players like O'Shea and Cattermole in not giving up that saved Sunderland from going further behind. Keeping in the game was not how Sunderland expected the day to go. They had been aiming to get Defoe running at our back four and they could hardly get a pass to him in that first 45 minutes.

AFCB had done their homework well and had taken the sting out of the game after 20 minutes and the huge crowd did start to turn on the Black Cats. The challenge for Eddie Howe is to get his team to continue keeping the ball alive and in their possession for longer spells and when they have that dominance to finish off teams. While Afobe got the lead he did still not receive the ball as often as he might have hoped and through no fault of his own. As time goes by though I expect Arter and Surman to find him more often as he bursts towards the box and once that understanding is there, these types of games just could turn into three points rather than one.

More of Tim's pictures are now on Match Day Gallery.

Score Predictions
There were two correct score predictions for the game against Sunderland. Casaín ‏@adria_casain and Steve Richards ‏@steverich56 correctly predicted 1-1. Sadly, there is only one prize to win and so there has been a draw to decide the winner - congratulations to Steve Richards who wins an AFCB wallet!

Look out for next week's competition when there will be another prize up for grabs.