For many fans of Championship clubs there is something very attractive about the underdog Yeovil team that are making a real fist of it as they fight for survival in this league. They have had their problems this season and have been pinned in the bottom three, but there is a shed of light that suggests they just could still manage a great escape. Their push to get out of that bottom three though is hindered by a Bournemouth side that has been casting all in its path aside as they hunt down a play-off place. Somethings got to give!
Yeovil Town played Blackpool two matches ago and got a precious away win and three points to help their cause. They will now be doing everything they can to get points at home where they have more chance to humble teams like they did against Nottingham Forest in October. AFCB won't expect an easy game even if they won well on Boxing Day against Yeovil.
The Charlton away defeat though will leave Yeovil's supporters starting to fear the worst. If there was ever a pressure game for the Glovers then this next one is it at home in front of their own supporters it's almost a last chance to try and get it right.
Gary Johnson always speaks kindly about his team in public and keeps a smile on his face but deep down he is desperate to keep Yeovil in the Championship. James Hayer is a player who he will be asking more of now as we enter this crucial time and James would surely love to score against his former team so he will be keenly watched. Other possible goal scorers I would watch out for Joel Grant and Liam Davis, but any Yeovil player could spoil the party for AFCB if they get a chance.
With Ishmael Miller going back to his parent Nottingham Forest club you may feel that Bournemouth's job has been made a little easier, but there is a spirit about the Yeovil side that can take them a long way. Still the Miller row did not seem to upset Yeovil when they played Blackpool. You would have also thought that the 1-4 defeat to Barnsley would have weakened the Glovers resolve but there are no faces that are down in the Yeovil camp. Like Bournemouth fans I get the feeling that they are enjoying the Championship for what it is and will get behind their team on Saturday.
Yeovil Home form
WWLDL
AFCB Away form
DWDWW
If you missed this morning's interview with The Back of the Blackthorn, then check out Rival Lines.
It is also worth having a listen to Gary Johnson's pre-match interview on the side panel on the right of this blog. Finally, don't forget to get your free bet on at Free Bet Negotiator.
This is a fan’s personal view of AFC Bournemouth from the outside looking in. It reports on the daily official activities reported by the club and comments made by individual fans on social media and fanbase websites. Life as an AFCB fan is never dull. As a life-long supporter of the Cherries, it is the friendliness of the staff, fans and my enthusiasm for the club that inspired me to write this blog.
Showing posts with label James Hayter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label James Hayter. Show all posts
Friday, 11 April 2014
Wednesday, 25 December 2013
What are Yeovil made of?
Happy Christmas to all readers of Cherry Chimes' and AFCB supporters! I've really enjoyed sharing my views on the site since February and look forward to the New Year following the Cherries.
I got a bit defensive of Yeovil last summer, when some other Championship supporters felt their teams would definitely finish ahead of the Somerset team. While Yeovil have been finding wins hard to get they have not been beaten heavily by anybody and they have beaten Nottingham Forest, Blackpool and Watford to keep their giant killing prowess going in this league.
While the Glovers have found it more difficult that AFCB to reach the higher levels of the Championship, they are certainly stirring now as I thought they might. They were bound to have that togetherness like the Cherries which helped get them promoted, because they have a small squad and they could not go out and spend big last summer. That meant much of the squad that came up are still playing for Yeovil and there are some familiar characters in their team.
I am sure that the Paddy Madden situation has not helped their cause. The unsettled striker was the star man last season and it is easy to see some comparisons with our Brett Pitman's inability to do as well this season as well.
Luke Ayling's yellow card against Blackburn Rovers last game means he will miss the match at Dean Court which is a bonus for AFCB in my opinion, because I always feel that he is a leader by example on the pitch for the Glovers. Edward Upson has been a really tall defender and leading scorer for them this season, which is part of their problem. Yeovil are struggling to score in the Championship. But AFCB's central defenders will have to watch Upson on set pieces, especially corners where he has been impressive in recent weeks. He is partnered at the back by Everton's Shane Duffy, who has a one month loan.
James Hayter has also not played as much as he might of wished. The ex-Bournemouth striker though is capable of turning any match as we well know and he is on just one goal this season. Joel Grant and Byron Webster though are the strikers that we will probably see most of at Dean Court, while Ishmael Miller is also a danger man - on loan from WBA.
Lastly, let's not forget Gary Johnson who has guided the Glovers to the second tier in English football for the first time. Yeovil's manager has done a magnificent job and on a shoestring of a budget. If he keeps Yeovil up this season it would be a great achievement for him and the town and while I love my Bournemouth I would like to see him keep Yeovil up. I think us minnows like being underdogs and with AFCB's newly increased spending power there can be little doubt that Yeovil can claim to be playing catch up on AFCB and there is nothing they would like to do more than beat us in what we can virtually call a derby.
So don't think this is an easy win for AFCB. The Glovers were all over Blackburn Rovers the other week when Jordan Rhodes popped up against the run of play to get a winner. We know that feeling only too well and Yeovil are well capable of upsetting the best teams in this division as I am sure Eddie Howe will tell his players.
Yeovil Away form:
LLLWD
AFCB Home form:
WLLDL
As a little Christmas bonus KnowHowe 5 can now be watched if you click on the KnowHowe tab. This afternoon I'll also have an exclusive Rival Lines interview with the Ciderspace blog ahead of Yeovil Town's visit to the Goldsands Stadium.
 |
| Merry Christmas to all fans of the Cherries. |
While the Glovers have found it more difficult that AFCB to reach the higher levels of the Championship, they are certainly stirring now as I thought they might. They were bound to have that togetherness like the Cherries which helped get them promoted, because they have a small squad and they could not go out and spend big last summer. That meant much of the squad that came up are still playing for Yeovil and there are some familiar characters in their team.
I am sure that the Paddy Madden situation has not helped their cause. The unsettled striker was the star man last season and it is easy to see some comparisons with our Brett Pitman's inability to do as well this season as well.
Luke Ayling's yellow card against Blackburn Rovers last game means he will miss the match at Dean Court which is a bonus for AFCB in my opinion, because I always feel that he is a leader by example on the pitch for the Glovers. Edward Upson has been a really tall defender and leading scorer for them this season, which is part of their problem. Yeovil are struggling to score in the Championship. But AFCB's central defenders will have to watch Upson on set pieces, especially corners where he has been impressive in recent weeks. He is partnered at the back by Everton's Shane Duffy, who has a one month loan.
James Hayter has also not played as much as he might of wished. The ex-Bournemouth striker though is capable of turning any match as we well know and he is on just one goal this season. Joel Grant and Byron Webster though are the strikers that we will probably see most of at Dean Court, while Ishmael Miller is also a danger man - on loan from WBA.
Lastly, let's not forget Gary Johnson who has guided the Glovers to the second tier in English football for the first time. Yeovil's manager has done a magnificent job and on a shoestring of a budget. If he keeps Yeovil up this season it would be a great achievement for him and the town and while I love my Bournemouth I would like to see him keep Yeovil up. I think us minnows like being underdogs and with AFCB's newly increased spending power there can be little doubt that Yeovil can claim to be playing catch up on AFCB and there is nothing they would like to do more than beat us in what we can virtually call a derby.
So don't think this is an easy win for AFCB. The Glovers were all over Blackburn Rovers the other week when Jordan Rhodes popped up against the run of play to get a winner. We know that feeling only too well and Yeovil are well capable of upsetting the best teams in this division as I am sure Eddie Howe will tell his players.
Yeovil Away form:
LLLWD
AFCB Home form:
WLLDL
As a little Christmas bonus KnowHowe 5 can now be watched if you click on the KnowHowe tab. This afternoon I'll also have an exclusive Rival Lines interview with the Ciderspace blog ahead of Yeovil Town's visit to the Goldsands Stadium.
Saturday, 3 August 2013
Part 2: Rolling back the years with Steve Fletcher
Mel Machin took over the manager's job from Tony Pulis in 1994 and he was met with a Steve Fletcher who said he wanted to leave the Cherries. Mel said, "Why leave?" Stay two months to give me time to work with you and if you still want to leave after that then okay." Fletch had been playing centre half at the time because of so many injuries in the team and he hadn't been enjoying it, but Machin convinced him that it was right to stay.
Machin brought in some great young players like Neil Young, Matt Hollands and Steve Jones which made it easier for Steve to fit in. It was the 1995 season that made its mark on Fletcher when he came back into the team having been injured. By Christmas the team was already 10 points adrift and when he came back on 2nd January against Swansea Fletch scored a brace in a 3:2 victory for the Cherries. From January to May he was virtually a different player. "I found my love for football then," said Fletcher. He hadn't been fully focussed before then.
The 1998 Auto Windscreens Trophy Final at Wembley was a big day in shaping Fletch's career. While Wembley can be a burden to some players, Steve always wanted to play there, "it was my boyhood dream," he said. "Winning the FA Cup was as big as winning the league then." While it was not going to be the FA Cup final Steve said: "How can you fail to be inspired when you are playing in front of 67,000 people?"
Steve and Franck Rolling were both carrying injuries the week before, but Mel Machin told them if you don't play against Walsall in the week you can consider yourself out of selection for the cup final against Grimsby. The three points against Walsall were just as important to Machin. Steve made him self available but the Frenchman was put on the bench for the final, having almost single-handedly got the team to the final with his goals since the quarter final, and he never played for the Cherries again, after refusing to play against Walsall. Eddie Howe came in to replace him. "Football is brutal," commented Steve.
O'Driscoll years
The O'Driscoll years were fascinating as it was the first time Steve had been under the leadership of a former team mate. In 1992 Sean was still playing but when he became manager he made Fletch captain. But the most important thing Steve said he learnt from Sean was that: "You don't have to be the best player on the pitch to influence the game." Indeed, you can do other things and Steve's job was to cushion the ball and feed it off to other strikers, keeping possession.
Steve affectionately refers to Sean as "Grumpy bollocks" or "Mr Happy." That is Sean's persona off the pitch but when he is on the training ground it was completely different said Steve. "Sean says it as it is, it's black or white, there is no grey. But you won't get a conversation out of him.
"It's different on the pitch, he brought me on. He was very technical in training and most of us didn't get it which was frustrating for him. He didn't always explain it - but he was a head of his time."
Steve would say how the players would ask the manager to explain what he meant. It would often just need 30 seconds more explanation before a lot of them would get what he was after. But Sean was doing some innovative training. It was the period when foreign mangers were coming into the game. Sean wanted the type of player who was a total footballer. Fletch remembers that many teams would see Bournemouth as a soft touch: "We had lots of small technically gifted players but opponents thought they could get at us if they got stuck in," he said.
"This is where we became known as a passing team. A nicey, nice team," says Steve. "I can't understand how that team never managed to get out of league One."
Talking about the strike partners that Steve has played with he mentioned that Jermain Defoe was probably the best striker we will be privileged to see at Dean Court. He was given on loan to the club by Harry Redknapp from West Ham and while he simply looked okay in the first week of training it wasn't until he scored in September 2001 away at Stoke which we lost 2:1 that he went on that record-breaking goal scoring run. " We actually used to applaud him in training. That is what he fed off it. He could just ping the ball in the top corner from an acute angle. He would then give it the full works with his celebration and run off holding his arm aloft. We had to tell him you don't have to go mad and run around the pitch every time you score."
Steve said he would just win the headers and Jermain would do the rest. "He'd just beat a few players at bang it in the top corner and I'd get an assist. He was a joy to play with a privilege and an honour." Steve and the lads knew he was destined for bigger things and would play for England one day.
Some have also said Steve played well with Mark Stein and they did complement each other well. Off the pitch though their relationship was a bit strained as Mark would often be a bit sarcastic of players if they could not do things when he had played in the Premiership. Steve has always been respectful of those who have played at a higher level but it would nark him when Mark would say some things. Of course Mark was at Crawley later on in Steve's career and they are okay with each other now.
Steve's special striker relationship though was with James Hayter. James would always be prepared to go back and do the defending to let the big man rest a bit. "We had a togetherness," said Fletch.
Millennium Stadium play-off Final
It didn't matter to Steve that the play-off final was at Cardiff rather than Wembley when AFCB took on Lincoln City in 2003. The atmosphere was better as those who went can testify to. Fletch was 30 then and he wasn't going to lose this final. "It was my one opportunity," he said "I would do anything I could to get promoted, to play my best and to get us the win. I was fed up with being the nearly man."
Steve was so pumped up he asked the manager if he could have a room on his own. He said he was like a caged tiger. He couldn't sleep and was up by six. When it came to the handshake at the start of the game he like he almost broke the first Lincoln player's hand he was that wound up. Fletch was up against Ben Futcher, a big 6ft 7in defender, but he knew he could out do him physically in the air as he didn't jump much and Fletch smashed him in the first couple of minutes to let him know he was there. "The first five minutes were probably my best ever in a game," said Fletch "I set my stool out. Nothing was going to stop me."
When Fletch scored, Wade Elliott was seen holding his head because Fletch had gripped it so tightly in celebration that he had made him bleed. But Fletch then went over to his family to celebrate and blew his wife a kiss to say that's for you.
Part three to follow...
The 1998 Auto Windscreens Trophy Final at Wembley was a big day in shaping Fletch's career. While Wembley can be a burden to some players, Steve always wanted to play there, "it was my boyhood dream," he said. "Winning the FA Cup was as big as winning the league then." While it was not going to be the FA Cup final Steve said: "How can you fail to be inspired when you are playing in front of 67,000 people?"
Steve and Franck Rolling were both carrying injuries the week before, but Mel Machin told them if you don't play against Walsall in the week you can consider yourself out of selection for the cup final against Grimsby. The three points against Walsall were just as important to Machin. Steve made him self available but the Frenchman was put on the bench for the final, having almost single-handedly got the team to the final with his goals since the quarter final, and he never played for the Cherries again, after refusing to play against Walsall. Eddie Howe came in to replace him. "Football is brutal," commented Steve.
O'Driscoll years
The O'Driscoll years were fascinating as it was the first time Steve had been under the leadership of a former team mate. In 1992 Sean was still playing but when he became manager he made Fletch captain. But the most important thing Steve said he learnt from Sean was that: "You don't have to be the best player on the pitch to influence the game." Indeed, you can do other things and Steve's job was to cushion the ball and feed it off to other strikers, keeping possession.
Steve affectionately refers to Sean as "Grumpy bollocks" or "Mr Happy." That is Sean's persona off the pitch but when he is on the training ground it was completely different said Steve. "Sean says it as it is, it's black or white, there is no grey. But you won't get a conversation out of him.
"It's different on the pitch, he brought me on. He was very technical in training and most of us didn't get it which was frustrating for him. He didn't always explain it - but he was a head of his time."
Steve would say how the players would ask the manager to explain what he meant. It would often just need 30 seconds more explanation before a lot of them would get what he was after. But Sean was doing some innovative training. It was the period when foreign mangers were coming into the game. Sean wanted the type of player who was a total footballer. Fletch remembers that many teams would see Bournemouth as a soft touch: "We had lots of small technically gifted players but opponents thought they could get at us if they got stuck in," he said.
"This is where we became known as a passing team. A nicey, nice team," says Steve. "I can't understand how that team never managed to get out of league One."
Talking about the strike partners that Steve has played with he mentioned that Jermain Defoe was probably the best striker we will be privileged to see at Dean Court. He was given on loan to the club by Harry Redknapp from West Ham and while he simply looked okay in the first week of training it wasn't until he scored in September 2001 away at Stoke which we lost 2:1 that he went on that record-breaking goal scoring run. " We actually used to applaud him in training. That is what he fed off it. He could just ping the ball in the top corner from an acute angle. He would then give it the full works with his celebration and run off holding his arm aloft. We had to tell him you don't have to go mad and run around the pitch every time you score."
Steve said he would just win the headers and Jermain would do the rest. "He'd just beat a few players at bang it in the top corner and I'd get an assist. He was a joy to play with a privilege and an honour." Steve and the lads knew he was destined for bigger things and would play for England one day.
Some have also said Steve played well with Mark Stein and they did complement each other well. Off the pitch though their relationship was a bit strained as Mark would often be a bit sarcastic of players if they could not do things when he had played in the Premiership. Steve has always been respectful of those who have played at a higher level but it would nark him when Mark would say some things. Of course Mark was at Crawley later on in Steve's career and they are okay with each other now.
Steve's special striker relationship though was with James Hayter. James would always be prepared to go back and do the defending to let the big man rest a bit. "We had a togetherness," said Fletch.
Millennium Stadium play-off Final
It didn't matter to Steve that the play-off final was at Cardiff rather than Wembley when AFCB took on Lincoln City in 2003. The atmosphere was better as those who went can testify to. Fletch was 30 then and he wasn't going to lose this final. "It was my one opportunity," he said "I would do anything I could to get promoted, to play my best and to get us the win. I was fed up with being the nearly man."
Steve was so pumped up he asked the manager if he could have a room on his own. He said he was like a caged tiger. He couldn't sleep and was up by six. When it came to the handshake at the start of the game he like he almost broke the first Lincoln player's hand he was that wound up. Fletch was up against Ben Futcher, a big 6ft 7in defender, but he knew he could out do him physically in the air as he didn't jump much and Fletch smashed him in the first couple of minutes to let him know he was there. "The first five minutes were probably my best ever in a game," said Fletch "I set my stool out. Nothing was going to stop me."
When Fletch scored, Wade Elliott was seen holding his head because Fletch had gripped it so tightly in celebration that he had made him bleed. But Fletch then went over to his family to celebrate and blew his wife a kiss to say that's for you.
Part three to follow...
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