A great delight for Burchall to make his debut

What a fantastic day it was for Ajani Burchall. One minute he is at school and the next he is getting a phone call from Jason Tindall to say you are on the subs bench for Saturday's first team game. At just 16 years and one month old, he has made amazing progress to be able to get to this position.

Academy players are getting chances to play for the first team now at AFCB.

Ajani's stature was small compare to the opposition, but he managed to get past them and had a great eight minutes on the pitch. He was smiling all the time and his post-match interview showed just how excited he was about the experience. His aim now will be to try and get back on the pitch as his mother was back in Bermuda and won't have seen him play live in this first game for AFCB.

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I must admit I had not heard of Burchell before the match and was delighted to see another academy player who has managed to span the gap to the first team. The progress that the academy players is starting to make an impact. If Bournemouth can keep producing top players they can start to spend more of their cash on the infrastructure rather than in binging in expensive signings. We have waited a long time to see players start to break through to the first team and whether it is Jason Tindall being more prepared to take that step than Eddie Howe was, or whether it has just taken this long to get the academy producing players of high enough quality, the future pattern looks set to see more young debuts like this.

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The game itself against Huddersfield was also special for the return of the fans. Not everyone could attend but a significant number made their voices heard and that has to be better than having fake noise on games. Whether the fans are here to stay we will see, but hopefully, COVID-19 transition rates can remain low enough for the fans to give everyone a chance of going back to see live games.

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