Eddie Howe can take AFCB into Europe

There have been many chairman who will look towards what has been happening down on the south coast and will be envious of just what Eddie Howe and Jason Tindall have achieved. The latest view of Darren Anderton proclaiming that there is every chance that Eddie could be poached is a view that I don't necessarily share though.

If Eddie wants a project there is still plenty to do at
AFCB and he has control of what he can achieve.

We saw an article by Sam Wallace at the Telegraph last week that Eddie must choose his next job carefully, as if AFCB was just a stepping stone for greater things for the Cherries' man. Danny Murphy on TalkSport was next to say give the Chelsea job to Eddie. There are those who think that just by picking out a successful manager and installing him at another club that everything will work out fine. But there are several reasons why Eddie Howe has been so successful at managing a wining team in the sunny retreat of Bournemouth and why the fit is so very good. Moving clubs now or in the next few years would simply be a risk for Eddie Howe and it's a risk he does not need to take.

The Cherries are going to be a bigger club than they are now in the coming years and the ambition of Eddie Howe and the owners are perhaps bigger than many looking from the outside could possibly imagine. The south coast club will have the finances to challenge in the top half of the Premier League very soon and I am not sure that those holding their pens in the national press have really recognised that yet. There is ambition at this club to do even better next season and the prospect of European football is high on the agenda with Eddie Howe leading the Cherries there.

At Bournemouth Eddie Howe has all that he needs. He has an owner who has backed him financially to help him achieve his aims and take AFCB to the Premier League where he wants to manage in the surroundings that he knows and likes so well at Bournemouth. He has a team around him that he trusts in with Peak 6, Maxim Demin, Neil Blake and Jeff Mostyn supporting him and the club is still building its infrastructure not only in new stands and training facilities, but in its youth and U21 squads that are also being taught the Eddie Howe way.

To have such control and say in how a club needs to be run is something that Howe would find almost impossible to have if he tried to walk through the doors at clubs like Chelsea, Everton or Arsenal for example. Such clubs may be seen as much bigger jobs and yet we have seen that the big clubs don't own the top four places in the Premier League this season. What Leicester have achieved is incredible, but there are ambitions for the Cherries to do something similar, once they have established themselves at this level.

Eddie Howe has left once and while he does not regret that with every experience being something he can draw from, the progress that he is making at pushing AFCB up the league now to 13th place makes it very hard for him to see any reason to move anywhere when he is enjoying his time so much at AFCB.

Back of the Net podcast Episode 4 - Two thousand fry ups - is out now. 

Listening in on SKY Sports' Simon Thomas and Eddie Howe (Video)

We must have been some of the last few fans to disperse from the Goldsands stadium after the Middlesbrough match. As it was an early kick off I did not really feel the need to race off home back to Surrey having just seen the Cherries dispatch a Championship rival with such a delicious display, so I decided to hang around a bit with Robert and Stephen to see if we could catch any celebrates after the game.

Simon Thomas checks his phone while Darren Anderton watches players warm up.

To my surprise Simon Thomas and Darren Anderton were not going to hide up in the high box studio that had been constructed for them between the Family stand and the North stand after the game. Sky Sports still wanted to do a post-match interview with Eddie Howe right down on the pitch in front of the few fans that had stayed late.

It was a busy day for the Sky team.

Eddie gives his verdict on Arter penalty and overall 
performance of AFCB (sound quality is low).

Sure enough we soon saw Eddie start dashing towards us and after a few seconds he was all hooked up and ready to go live on air with Simon Thomas looking gleefully pleased to be able to grill Eddie Howe over Harry Arter's rather contentious penalty and the run in. I just about had time to get towards the front and just record whatever I could even though I was a little way back and while the sound quality is not the best you can get a good idea of what Eddie Howe had to say about many aspects of the win against Middlesbrough and I particularly like the interruption from the AFCB fans, and when Simon Thomas hands over at the end by saying and now over to Aitor Karanka to discuss Middlesbrough's heaviest defeat of the season. 

Simon Thomas is keen to get started. 

Just writing down a few notes - this crowd is noisy!

The wind gets up and Simon has to grab his notes quick!

True pro - you wouldn't know he was scrabbling on the floor for his notes three seconds ago. 

Piece to camera done.

AFCB player International watch
Finally, last night Ireland drew 1-1 with Poland in a hotly contested match and neither Artur Boruc or Harry Arter managed to join the game from the bench which was probably good for AFCB as it was a very competitive match.

Poole Town game next up for Cherries

I expect a lot of you will be able to get a close up glimpse of the Cherries as they set up against Poole Town on Monday. This traditional fixtures always marks the forthcoming season with a bit of competitive sparring between the two local teams and we already know that one or two guests will be on Poole Town's team with Warreen Cummings and Darren Anderton set to take to the field.

Other ex-Bournemouth players at the club include Dan Thomas (keeper) and Jordan Chiedozie (striker), while Jonathan Muleba (defender) of AFCB spent some of last season on loan with the Dolphins. Steve Devlin in midfield and Richard Gillespie were the players notching up most of the goals for Poole Town in their Calour Premier league last season. Finishing seventh was a pretty good season for them, but promotion will be their aim as we head into a new season.

Chiedozie should be on view at Tatnam.

Having travelled back from Austria at the weekend the first team won't be featuring for AFCB, but the team will be made up Development squad players. The game is also a testimonial game for Taffy Richardson. The game kicks off at 7.45pm.

Well the World Cup is over and for the next four years we can all hail Germany as the World Champions. I would like to give a big than you to Kyle Cotter who has been helping me out with World Cup Chimes these past few weeks. World Cup Chimes now has Kyle's World Cup final report on view.

Purches comes through the heat in testimonial

Match Report:
Stephen Purches' Testimonial

AFC Bournemouth 0 v 2 West Ham Utd

13 July 2013

It was a hot, sweltering day at Dean Court for Stephen Purches’ testimonial match and a large crowd of home and away supporters turned up to show their gratitude for Stephen’s long playing career. Both sides formed an avenue as Stephen walked onto the pitch.

The game then got underway with West Ham kicking towards the North stand in temperatures around 30C.  The Hammers had a string team out with many of their first eleven on show and it was Kevin Nolan who almost picked upon Steve Cook’s misplaced pass in the first few minutes. With the nerves out of the way, Bournemouth soon found their stride and Pitman in particular giving West Ham’s defenders much to contend with in the first few minutes, forcing an early corner.

West Ham were a little wasteful in possession and it was the Cherries that were making the early running with Donal McDermott having a shot blocked.  The Hammers found more freedom down the right wing with Vaz Te and Noble interchanging well and  Vaz Te eventually heading over. Flahavan’s poor goal kick was also returned sharply by Collinson but was saved.

After eight minutes West Ham took the lead with Demel sending in a cross from the right, which Nolan got up to meet first and powered his header past the isolated Flahavan in the Bournemouth goal. 

Nolan seemed to have the drop on Arter and was starting to dominate the midfield. When the Cherries did get it wide to Fraser the young Scot would motor down the left and send in crosses but no one was able to get on the end of the crosses. The most likely scorer for AFC Bournemouth was Pitman who was throwing himself at everything, including an overhead kick off of one of Fraser’s deliveries after 19 minutes. 

Francis was doubling back most of the time as Jarvis and Rat were finding a lot of space on West Ham’s left wing. After half an hour play was stopped so the players could get some water on board. It was a real scorcher of a day!

Bournemouth then stepped up their efforts with Ian Harte’s free kick hammering against the wall and Arter’s shot blasted over the goal. Fraser had Bournemouth’s next best chance on 36 minutes when Grabban had put him through, but the Scot tried to come back inside on his stronger right foot and his shot was pushed away for a corner. 

Pitman had a good chance to even the scores with a header back across goal from Francis right wing cross but he steered it wide to the left of the upright.

Towards the end of the first half Nolan managed to hit the bar with a header as he peddled backwards, but it was in the following two minutes of extra time when it all fell apart for the Cherries. One of AFCB's players went down with what looked like an elbow in the face but the referee played on with Bournemouth players also expecting the offside flag to go up, but West Ham played on and rounded Flahavan, enabling Collison to put the Hammers two nil up at half time.

The second half brought several changes to Bournemouth’s team. Off went Harte, Pitman and McDermott and on came Daniels, Thomas and Elphick. Francis moved up to midfield and Fraser played behind the front two as the Cherries experimented with three at the back.

It was a slow start to the second 45 minutes with Thomas missing a chance and later going down and then Nolan who was subbed.

Maiga missed a good chance to put the Hammers further ahead on 54 minutes but he put his header over. Daniels was the recipient of a loose tackle from West Ham’s right back but he got to his feet okay.

More subs followed with Fraser being replaced by Sam Matthews on 58 minutes. West Ham’s midfield was still looking strong with Collison, Maiga, Jarvis and Rat holding the ball well, while Noble was sitting in deep behind them.

On 60 minutes West Ham brought on some star names including Mat Taylor, Joe Cole, Diami and Tonkins.

Bournemouth had their best move of the half moments later when Grabban put Daniels in only for him to fire into the side netting with the home crowd thinking that he had scored. Stephen Purches then came on in midfield with 25 minutes to go and McDonald came off.

The Cherries had a free-kick on 69 minutes which Daniels hit over. By now teh game had slowed and it was time for more changes as Addison, Stockley and Fogden replaced Francis, Grabban and Ward. Arter also came off after 76 minutes and Donal McDermott came back on.

Vaz Te then left the field on 80 minutes and was replaced by McCallum and Darren Anderton replaced Bournemouth’s Steve Cook a minute later. The West Ham fans took no time in chanting: “We hate Tottenham, we hate Tottenham”, which Anderton seemed to enjoy.

On 84 Minutes McDermott came off again and Steve Fletcher came on. There was a big cheer when an Anderton cross found Steve Fletcher who got a head to it, but nudged it wide.

John Purches then came on to show support for his brother in the last five minutes, replacing Matthews.

West Ham Utd: First half

Jaaskelainen, Demel, Reid, Rat, Collins, Noble, Collinson, Nolan, Maiga, Jatrvis, Vaz Te.

Bournemouth: First half

Flahavan, Francis, Ward, Cook, Harte, McDonald, Arter, McDermott, Pitman, Fraser, Grabban.  

Match day quotes

Stephen Purches was pleased that the day had gone well with the good turnout. He told BBC Solent that: “There were two teams strong descent teams out there who put on a descent game in hot conditions.” When asked about his personal fitness and his performance, Stephen responded “All in all I got what I needed out of it.” He also said how pleased he was that West Ham sold out their end of the ground so quickly, “I couldn’t ask for any more,” he said.

After the match Eddie Howe said: “It was good weather for it, a really good crowd and certainly really good opposition for us – a tough game as we knew it would be. And yeah, I was reasonably happy. ” He added . “In the first half we more than matched them, although we conceded a couple of goals which disappoint us. But there was a lot of promise.”

Darren Anderton also commented: “I was very pleased when Purchy asked me to play and to be part of his big day. The west Ham supporters were down in good numbers and give me a bit of stick which was all good fun as a Spurs player. But I thoroughly enjoyed it and the main things is the turnout was fantastic for Purchy.“

Tommy Elphick said: “It was brilliant to see Fletch, Purchy and his brother to come on at the end. Those characters have played a big part in his career and he fully deserved today.”  

Anderton to support Purchy testimonial

It was brilliant to hear this morning that Darren Anderton would play a part in Stephen Purches' testimonial game at the weekend. I did not see a lot of games when Darren was at the club as it was my period when I was at the other end of the country, but I am looking forward to see if he still has some of that guile and touch that made him a class player in his time.

We have had some fantastic wingers here at AFCB and Darren would have to fit into the top bracket even if he was heading towards the end of his career when he was at the Cherries. I am looking forward to see what the line ups will be like what with Steve Fletcher and Purchy also ready to take to the field for this game.

If West Ham do field a strong team then I expect AFCB will have to make many substitutions to keep up with the pace of their Premiership stars. It is a shame that Eddie Howe is not able to stretch his legs although Tindall possibly could still do a job on the pitch.

Any way, I am really looking forward to that game. What do you think about Darren coming back to play in this match? Will you be pleased to see him in Red&Black?