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Sunday, 17 January 2021

10-man Bournemouth come a cropper against Luton

 Match Report
AFCB 0 v 1 Luton Town
16 January 2021
Luton dent AFCB's automatic promotion hopes

The Cherries lost more ground on the leaders in the Championship with a sorry 0-1 defeat against Luton Town. The game started to run away from Bournemouth when Jefferson Lerma was sent off with a straight red for a challenge for a header in the first half. Both teams seemed surprised by the harshness of the punishment for something that didn't look like deliberate violent conduct. A solitary breakaway goal by Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall saw Luton win their ninth game of the season while Bournemouth sank to their fourth defeat, and second home defeat of 2020-21.

Bournemouth made three changes from their previous game with Josh King, Jack Stacey and Cameron Carter-Vickers starting. It was the first start for Cameron Carter-Vickers in the league for AFCB. Out went Junior Stanislas, Lloyd Kelly and Jack Simpson. Danjuma was still not ready to join the squad.

Arguably the team looked more attack-minded with there at the back and Adam Smith and Jack Stacey pushing up on either flanks with a front three of King. Solanke and Brooks, while Lerma and Lewis Cook kept stability in the centre of midfield.

The Cherries dominated the early part of the game with David Brooks going close in the second minute and Josh King seeing his half-hit strike saved on seven minutes after Luke Berry's header had let King in. That was followed by a wayward shot from Lewis Cook which sailed over the bar, but Bournemouth were in the ascendancy.

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Matters changed on 26 minutes when Jefferson Lerma was shown a straight red card for a challenge on Tom Lockyer. that saw his elbow hit Lockyer in the eye. I am sure Bournemouth will appeal, but the punishment set Bournemouth down to 10 men. Lockyer couldn't carry on in the end and was subbed for Naismith.

Cameron Carter-Vickers saw a header go wide following a corner and Josh King's shot in the box was then cleared off the line. While Bournemouth had a few more blocked shots it remained 0-0 at half-time.

Luton obviously looked to improve on their failures to get forward in the first half and Glen Rea had a shot saved by Begovic on 47 minutes. Potts then came close with a header from a corner for Luton that Begovic saved with his left boot and Dewsbury-Hall had a shot saved seconds later that was heading for the top corner.

King then slotted Solanke in on goal down the left and the ball looked headed for the net before Potts cleared it off the line.

The Hatters kept coming forward with Collins missing a header from Harry Cornick's cross. A chance fell to David Brooks in the box but he put it over the bar. Luton were more in their stride now with Cornick hitting a shot too high. Collins was also a threat in the break. It was a goal on 67 minutes to the visitors that decided the three points. Cornick found Dewsbury-Hall, on the right, who slotted the ball away with a low curling shot into the left corner to beat Begovic.

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Bournemouth made three changes with Surridge, Billing and Kelly replacing King, Rico and Stacey. Jordan Clark also replaced Harry Cornick.

Tindall made further changes with Riquelme subbing Adam Smith and Jaidon Anthony coming on for Brooks. Riquelme had a shot blocked and another saved before Luton subbed James Bree with Matty Pearson and James Collins with Danny Hylton. Mpanzu had a late shot saved for Luton while Pearson was booked for a foul on Riquelme.

Billing and Hylton were also booked in added time.

Summary
Another game where Bournemouth squandered chances despite having the majority for the possession and looked in control for large parts of the game. Teh sending off clearly changed things and Bournemouth were caught out by a team that got plenty of men behind the ball and made it hard for Bournemouth to break them down. Tindall has to find away of beating stubborn sides that defend well and not get hit on the break. It's simply costing too many points. On the plus side Cameron Carter-Vickers looks like a good addition to the backline.

Luton Town: Sluga, Bree (Pearson 87), Potts, Bradley, Lockyer (Naismith 34), Rea, Dewsbury-Hall, Mpanzu, Berry, Cornick (Clark 74), Collins (Hylton 87)

Luton Subs: Shea, Pearson, Hylton, Naismith, Morrell, Nombe, LuaLua, Clark, Moncur.

AFCB lineup

AFCB Subs: Dennis, Simpson, Mepham, Kelly,
Kilkenny, Billing, Riquelme, Surridge, Anthony

Previous post on Cherry Chimes - Stanislas might be out but FCB have players back for te Luton game



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