Lewis Cook has the perfect platform on which to impress

It's going to be a big night this evening for Lewis Cook as he runs out at Dean Court in an England U21 international against Latvia. Being in front of so many of his Bournemouth supporters will give him a lift, and he'll know that it is a great chance to impress Eddie Howe who has not given him a Premier League start this season yet.

Lewis Cook will be getting lots of support tonight from AFCB fans in the England crowd.

While Lewis Cook has made the step up from the England U20s to the U21s with his debut against the Netherlands last weekend, it is still a team that Lewis will be getting used to playing in and that is a lot to deal with. But Lewis is probably thrilled about the match being at his home club and familiarity with the kind of atmosphere that is created in the stadium should help him.

Looking ahead it may be that Eddie will continue to use Lewis more in the cup games than in the league. Having played the two England U21 matches just a few days apart, Lewis may not participate in the Arsenal game squad. The Brighton Carabro Cup game is more than likely his next target for a starting place, and while that will frustrate some fans who want to see Lewis in the first team as soon as possible, Eddie Howe has a track record of dipping young players in for a few games, at certain points of the season, but then taking them out for a while. Lewis had pushed his claim well towards the end of last season, but I get the impression that Howe doesn't want Lewis to burnout and cup games and U21 matches may be the make-up of Lewis' programme for a little while yet.

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If Lewis does find his games mainly coming in the cup competitions, I suspect that we can assume Eddie will try and ensure he and the others in cup games get to play in them right up to the latter stages. The squad AFCB has now is good enough to put out two good teams and the league cup is a great competition for the younger players that want the intensity of play against decent sides. 

It will be interesting to see how good the U21s are for England and whether Lewis Cook can influence the game more at this level than he might when he hopefully plays against Brighton in the Carabro cup later this month. We may get an indication then of whether Lewis is being held back or if he is now ready to play more Premier League games,

Wilson has been playing despite the niggles

I was  a bit worried to hear that Callum Wilson has had to have injections before the last few games for AFCB just to help his toes and that one of his knees has been giving him some trouble as well. When he came off against Middlesbrough you could see that he was walking pretty uncomfortably and it looked like his face was telling everyone that he might not be able to meet up with the England U21 squad. Since then we have heard that he will not be joining up with that squad which is a big pity for him, but clearly not necessarily bad news for the Cherries at this stage of the season.

Callum will be hoping that he is fit enough to take part against Ipswich Town.

Sometimes the club is very good at hiding injuries and niggles to players and the difficulties that Callum Wilson has been experiencing is something that might explain why he has been so eager to keep scoring and to keep playing. He has hardly missed any games though this season and with call ups for the England U21s as well, I am sure that AFCB are being really careful not to burn him out. He has been great this season but AFCB will also want him to be no less productive next season and long term management of players is always the way clubs try and look after such prestigious talent.

Being Callum's first Championship season he will probably find when he looks back at the season and feel that he gave it his all and his all has been the catalyst for the Cherries' startling season. I would expect there to be many Coventry fans still willing him on to achieve more and the summer offers him the chance to play for his country in a big tournament if selected. That means no real rest though for Callum and if he is already finding that he needs treatment it probably isn't going to get any easier for him. If this is what he can do though when he doesn't quite feel 100 per cent, I imagine that AFCB really do have a top quality striker on their books who will one day play for the full England international side.

The signing of Kenwyne Jones on loan enables Callum to get fully fit before coming back into the team and it may be just what he needs right now so I hope everyone gets behind Kenwyne and makes him feel welcome. What it says about Cardiff's season is perhaps more telling as one of the hot promotion favourites are languishing in mid-table and the chance to reduce the wage bill looks like it was too hard to resist for Russell Slade who is also a good friend of Eddie Howe. 

Good luck to Josh Carmichael at Havant & Waterlooville, Josh O'Hanlon at York City and Mohamed Coulibaly at PortVale.