AFCB fail to build on early lead against Saints

Getting the first goal is always what AFCB charge out for in those early minutes of games. It happens more often than not when they have the home crowd whipped up into a frenzy and that is what we all witnessed on Sunday. Things were going well when Aké nipped in to give the Cherries the lead, but it masked the overriding factor that the Saints were fresher for this match.

AFCB got the early goal but there was very little after that.

The game might have gone much differently had AFCB been a bit more clever with the ball having scored that opening goal. There was a sense that AFCB made it too easy for the Saints and while they didn't roll over, AFCB didn't press their early advantage home. Sometimes it is harder than anything to win games one-nil. It is a difficult skill and to hold out for some 80 minutes is not in any chapter of the Howe manual of football. Turn the first page when AFCB are one-nil up and the second and third page will be retain possession, look to play simple passes and above all keep challenging and try to add further pressure on the opposition by playing in their half. 

Some how the pages got lost in the fog though. It was more a case of can we put two or three passes together again and how do we defend on the wings when we are getting overrun? There were a few corners won and some good breaks, but we never saw Callum Wilson and Josh King really seeing much of the ball. Jack Wilshere did have it but his pass options were more limited than they might have been with a lack of much movement in front of him. 

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Whether AFCB just run out of ideas or ran out of steam, there was not intensity to their play from as early as 20 minutes against the Saints. To get to half time at 1-1 seemed pretty good considering the mistakes that were being made and yet there was nothing that could be done at half time to turn things around. That makes me a bit worried in that none of the second half subs changed the mood or flow of the game for AFCB. As the Saints got stronger, there was little reply from the Cherries. Eddie Howe now has to find a bit of va, va voom in the coming days to inject back into this side.