Everton knock the Cherries out of the FA Cup 0-2

Match Report

FA Cup 5th Round

20 Feb 2016

AFCB 0 v 2 Everton

Attendance: 11,404

Could AFCB get their hands on the FA Cup this season?

The Cherries  left Dean Court after this game wondering what might have been. A saved Charlie Daniels' penalty in the first half and a Gosling header aimed firmly at Everton's keeper in the second were the best goal chances that the home side had to score. It was not enough to prevent Everton from going through with a looping, deflected, goal from England international Ross Barkley followed up by a smashed in second, from the Toffee's leading striker after AFCB's failure to cleared a corner. It could have been a different story but even with the glorious defiance of Sylvain Distin and some bright moments from Juan Iturbe, this was not an AFCB side that shouted that the FA Cup is a priority.

Young fans capture the excitement of the day.

AFCB before kick off.

Everton put out a strong team.

Lukaku, Barkley and Cleverely.

Tommy Elphick and Phil Jagielka.

There are more photos on Match Day Gallery.

Competition winner

Congratulations to @DrJDray who guessed the first goal going in at 52 minutes. That was the closest guess to the 55 minute goal by Ross Barkley and a pair of AFCB sweatbands are on their way to you.

There was some slimmer of optimism that the Cherries' long wait to break its 59-year wait to reach it's second FA Cup quarter-final could happen. The tie against Everton was at home, but most thoughts of an AFCB win were quickly dispelled when the team line up was announced. Everton were playing a star line up, but AFCB had rested several key individuals and in the end it mattered. 

Of Course, it was pleasing to see Tommy Elphick continue his match fitness regime with another game and the ever-young Sylvain Distin settle in beside him, but with Harry Arter and Andrew Suman removed from the team and no Benik Afobe on the bench, it was going to be asking a lot of the members of the squad who had not played many league games to beat an Everton side who had a grudge to bear after their draw at Dean Court earlier in the season.

Ross Barkley is ready to go.

First Half
Federici was soon in action in the Bournemouth goal as Romelu Lukaku stretched his legs and gave the ball to Ross Barkley on the right side to instantly try and shoot across the AFCB keeper, but Federici made a simple save. The game settled with Everton keeping the ball and the Cherries aiming to play Josh King in on the break. Juan Iturbe soon started to see a lot of the play on the right with Bryan Oviedo his main defensive duties of the afternoon.

Iturbe was playing well and fired in an early chip for King to reach but it cleared over the striker's head. Moments later the Argentine was on the ball again and ran straight towards the box before firing a shot wide on 13 minutes.

Everton were soon back in their stride though and won a corner off Tommy Elphick. While the ball was cleared, Juan Iturbe was caught by James McCarthy who was the first name in the book. Gareth Barry was next to give Iturbe some special treatment to try and slow him down.

AFCB were not holding on to the ball well enough in central midfield with Eunan O'Kane finding it hard to slip a pas to a colleague. Stanislas was similarly finding it hard to get fully into the game, but he managed a shot that flew over.

Everton playing on the break was an even more fearsome sight with Lukaku racing down the left wing and taking on Tommy Elphick, making it into the box and blasting a shot at Federici who blocked somehow with his legs and then saw the ball fortunately land straight into his hands! Ross Barkley was also taking aim and he shot over moments later.

A Bournemouth break had all the merits of a trademark build up with Gosling, MacDonald and Daniels fighting hard before Junior Stanislas had a chance of a shot, but simply failed to get his shot away in time. An even more dangerous move saw Iturbe nutmeg McCarthy and put Gosling in with a run but it was just too strong a pass.

Lukaku was an obvious problem for AFCB's defence but with Distin at the back it was like two heavyweights slugging it out and Distin was winning every round. Then on 35 minutes an AFCB corner was met by the hand of James McCarthy and referee Martin Atckinson point to the spot. The anticipation was tantalising as Daniels took his run and struck his shot. Robles guest correctly to his left and made a comfortable save while the follow up was a bundle with Francis and Iturbe heading the race, but the shot went over off the bar. It was a massive moment of the game and it had gone the Everton keeper's way.

The frustration may have got to Dan Gosling who was getting some stick from one of his former club's fans and he clipped Aaron Lennon to receive a yellow after a few multiple fouls. At half time it was surprising that it was still 0-0 but AFCB knew that the penalty miss was a big moment.

O'Kane and Golsing.

Iturbe and Funes Mori.

Second half - here we go.

Second Half
At the start of the second half Distin made another strong block of a shot from Aaron Lennon to huge applause. AFCB were able to push forward and to win a corner, but when the ball fell back out to MacDonald he could only screw his volley over the bar.

That was the signal for Everton to start upping their play. AFCB struggled to get a tackle in before Lukaku found McCarthy who shot at the side netting on 55 minutes. AFCB did not get the ball out of their half though and Lukaku made a good turn to find Ross Barkley and he played the ball out to the left for Tom Cleverely, before receiving it back and tried his luck from the edge of the box - his luck was in! A mean deflection off of Dan Gosling saw the ball loop up and over the backward stepping Adam Federici and right into the right hand corner of the net. It was 0-1 to Everton.

Very soon after it was almost two as Barkley put Lukaku through only for the offside to go up as Lukaku found the back of the net. Still, it was a good finish past Federici.

A little hope came when King was fouled on the edge of Everton's box. AFCB wanted to bring on Ritchie but they waited until after the free kick and Stanislas almost got the Cherries back in the game striking the wall and wrong footing Joel Robles. Sadly the ball just trickled wide of the goal.

Ritchie came on for MacDonald on 63 minutes and Stanislas moved into the centre. Iturbe had not been seen so much in the second half until he landed himself with a yellow for tripping up Gareth Barry. King followed suit soon after with a challenge that looked shoulder to shoulder to me with Jagielka, but Atckinson was not what you could call a homer. With time running out, Glenn Murray replaced Iturbe as the Cherries looked for the big man to cause trouble.

For a few moments Everton did look unsettled. Murray won a corner and while the ball went too deep, Stanislas recovered it on the right and put the ball back into the box only for Gosling, with a free header, to put it straight in Robles hands!

Josh King was running hard at defenders now and zipped past Funes Mori and pulled the ball back to Ritchie, but he blasted his shot over!

A strong run from Lennon saw him dash from right to left across Bournemouth's box before Barkley shot and the ball was deflected wide off of O'Kane. The corner ended the Cherries challenge as a back heel from Barry at the near post saw the ball run just three or four foot from the goal and while time stood still, just like the ball, it was Lukaku who responded first and smashed home Everton's second on 76 minutes.

Eddie Howe brought on Adam Smith for Dan Gosling and soon after, Everton took off Barkley and Lukaku with Mirallas and Oumar Niasse came on. The last 10 minutes saw shots fired wide by Ritchie and then Mirallas, while Roubles infuriated the home crowd with his time wasting.

The last gasp came when King running down the right whipped in a low cross in front of Stanislas, but Rubles got there first to smother the ball. After four minutes of added time the whistle went and AFCB were out of the cup.

The players after the game with Eddie Howe centre.

Defeat, but a better performance than last home game.

Distin applauds Everton fans in the Ted MacDougall stand.

Summary
While AFCB fans knew their side was up against it from the start we hoped for a competitive game. Everton were stronger and perhaps felt more confident that they could win the game. The penalty save was seen almost as an omen that it was Everton's day and so it turned out to be. Even Everton's first goal could be seen as fortuitous. The failure to clear the ball for Everton's second though was the low point of the afternoon for Eddie Howe. While the cup has gone, it really will be decided in the coming weeks whether it was right to rest so many first team players for this game in order to save the club's Premier League status. Wembley though is one place AFCB won't be headed in 2016.

Distin and Lukaku swap shirts.

AFCB
Federici, Francis, Elphick, Distin, Daniels, O'Kane, Iturbe (Murray), Gosling (Smith)
MacDonald (Ritchie), Stanislas, King

ACB Subs
Boruc, Pugh, Smith, Murray, Wiggins, Ritchie, Butcher

AFCB Ratings

Federici 6, Francis 6, Elphick 7, Distin 9, Daniels 6, O'Kane 5, Iturbe 8, Gosling 6
MacDonald 5, Stanislas 6, King 7

Everton

Rubles, Coleman, Jagielka, Funes Mori, Oviedo, McCarthy, Barry, Lennon, Barkley (Mirallas), Cleverley, Lukaku (Niasse)

Everton Subs
Howard, Baines, Stones, Mirallas, Niasse, Deulofeu, Osman

Referee Watch - Martin Atkinson: 4/10 disagreed with his yellow card for King and thought Iturbe was not that well protected by him.