AFC Business Christmas Dinner hits big numbers

Cherry Chimes went along to the AFC Business Christmas Lunch yesterday. It was a packed Champions Top Floor Restaurant with some 150 people attending the meal. The crowd were given a brief overview of how the club had won back many corporate businesses, and small business firms, in the local area since Rob Mitchell had joined the club 11 years ago, and was given the message that club is still listening and trying to see how it can improve and grow the AFC Business community further still.

Local businesses tuck in to their Christmas Lunch 

AFC Business has grown substantially in the last decade

I had an obvious reason for being at the event as it gave me a chance to network with local people in Bournemouth that I don't often get the chance to do living up in Redhill in Surrey. The conversations quickly turned to the prior evening's game and how the team had missed a big three points at Selhurst Park. There were quite a few AFCB supporters among the sponsors and I got the impression that all the businesses want AFCB to do very well, even if they have individual football loyalties elsewhere. I also wanted to meet people to make them aware of my book Eddie Had A Dream, so it was good to distribute some cards and get people talking about the book and Cherry Chimes.

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The star of the event was probably Jimmy Glass, the AFCB player's liaison officer, who was in charge of the microphone for the Christmas quiz. Jimmy was on the look out for anyone touching their phone during the quiz, and there were a few that got caught and had to give a rendition of their favourite Christmas carol or song. Luckily my phone didn't go off and I managed to get the odd football question right for my table that finished midway in the quiz.

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The winners received tickets to the next AFC Business breakfast event in January, a bottle of bubbly and tickets to the Spurs home game next year. For me it was just helpful to see another side of the football club, and a few faces that I have met before.

Beware Jimmy Glass is looking to pick people out

How do AFCB get Defoe's game going?

Jermain Defoe has made eight starts for the Cherries and four sub appearances, but his single goal tally is far behind what he and perhaps Eddie Howe would have expected at this stage of the season. Defoe was looking like a reasonable prospect to go to Russia next year but his World Cup hopes are hanging by a thread now, and he needs not only games but goals to get himself back into the reckoning.

Jermain is still seeking his second goal of the season.

Eddie Howe gave Defoe the opportunity to get himself back on the score sheet and he 69 minutes to try and get that goal against Southampton. There was only one real moment when Defoe looked like he might score though when he deflected a shot from Adam Smith and Fraser Forster made a great reaction save. They say chances for forwards come in bunches and Defoe is just being very unlucky in front of goal. One chance per game though tells me that he is not getting the ball in the right areas to hurt defences as his movement and speed looks as good as ever.3

While Bournemouth can swap between forwards to find a solution that moves the team forward, there is no time for Defoe to be on the bench if he wants to get a recall to the England team. He and Callum Wilson would no doubt love to be on that plane and yet bot are searching for consistent form which seems elusive. Eddie Howe must back his players though to get it right and with so many games coming in December he must hope that things turnaround for Defoe especially as he was brought into the team for his finishing last summer and he hasn't yet moved the team on.

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Defoe needs the ball in the box and he needs to be fed in when one on one with the last defender. Getting into such positions seem beyond him and the team. I looked at what Charlie Austin managed to do up front for Southampton in the game against Bournemouth and I have to say that Charlie created a lot of his chances for himself, but Defoe is still not holding onto the ball for long whenever he gets a pass and perhaps he needs to start trying just to run at defenders when he is given the ball. 

What happened yesterday?
Apologies for only posting one article yesterday. I was at the AFCB Business Christmas dinner along with many other local businesses and charities. Rob Mitchell reminded everyone that it was an anniversary of sorts as at this time in 2009 the club had just played Notts County in the FA Cup and were about to take on Shrewsbury when it launched AFC Business. In those days the club had an attendance of about 5000 and season ticket holders numbered 2000, a bit different from today with gates of 11,000 and 7000 season ticket holders that is capped because the stadium is at its capacity.

Here are some photos of yesterday's dinner. Jeff Mostyn club chairman was in attendance.

The event was sponsored by Hill Osborne chartered accountants.

No we didn't get the presents under the tree!

The tree aagn.

Rob Mitchell's address.

Cherry Chimes was on Table 3.

There were 12 tables set out in the Top Floor Restaurant
 if my memory serves me right.

ASK Fans' Match Preview by Cherry Chimes - Crystal Palace v AFCB
Cherry Chimes also answers the questions from Crystal Palace blog The Eagles Beak