Cherries already among the goals

It was good to see so many of you decide to vote on the Chimes poll for the top scorer pre-season. To receive more than 50 votes was excellent for our first poll of the new season. It was no surprise to see that most of you expect Yann Kermorgant to get a hat full of goals this July, and while Callum Wilson also drew a lot of support it is not always those who you might expect to bag the most goals pre-season. I limited it this year to just the first team and last pre-season Jordan Chiedozie ran away with the top scorer and nobody picked him out as the top scorer. Still I get the feeling we could be in for a shock again.

While we have only had three first team friendlies 17 goals is a pretty amazing start and there are some unlikely candidates among the goals. It won't be Rakish Bingham  that catches you out though as his trail period seems over as he is reported to be trying out for Cheltenham Town now. It was interesting to hear that Eddie Howe did not dismiss the possibility of other players still joining the side before the start of the season and we'll have to wait to see if AFCB are still after more strike options or strengthening in other areas.

Where's Rantie?

Brett Pitman has also been doing his utmost to get noticed by scoring setting up a goal and hitting the bar and all in one match against Eastleigh, while bagging a couple in the anhilation of Dorchester. The fan who selected Brett to top the scoring chart could well be on to a good thing. I backed TK to come good and have my fingers crossed that he will if he gets some game time although he was not even among those used at Dorchester.So it is Yann Kermorgant leads the way on four and he had not even scored in pre-season before the Magpies game. It is good to see the goals getting shared out though with Matt Ritchie , Harry Arter, Marc Pugh and Shaun MacDonald all providing goals from midfield.

Of course it does not really matter who scores at this stage as long as the team is playing well, creating chances and putting away the chances they should. The spread of goals through the team is pleasing and it will help Callum Wilson that he has got off the mark. Congratulations also to Ben Whitfield who played against Dorchester and even got on the score sheet - that is fabulous to hear. It looks like AFCB's youngsters are starting to make the grade.

Excitement is sure to rise among fans in the next week when the first team finally line up for a home match in front of some eager fans who will be wondering how they will get on against a new look Southampton.

We have uploaded two more match day photo albums to the Cherry Chimes' Facbook page. You can now look back at the home draw match against Middlesbrough and the night time 4-1 win against Leeds Utd. Just visit Cherry Chimes' Facebook page and give us a like or download the phone app on the side bar to gain access to the Facebook site. 

Seeing is believing and Bingham looked the part

It has been a long time since I have seen the Cherries kicking the ball about. The Millwall away games seems years ago, but it was a real treat to see the team play at Vulkanlandarena in Austria against FC Copenhagen. You could see that there is plenty of work still to do but in the first half I felt that Arter really got a grip of the game while Ritchie was trying to get in the ball as much as he could. The passing was what I looked most closely at and while there were quite a few long diagonal balls from one wing to another the movement of the players seemed fairly strong and FC Copenhagen took a while to match the Cherries' performance.

Kermorgant and Arter kept FC Copenhagen busy first half.

You can't put too much ficus on such games as they only give you a glimpse of how the players are doing. I thought Eddie Howe would have taken a close look at the play of Adam Smith who looked quite settled at right back. I did not see much of Pugh or Gosling although that might have been a bit down to the the camera being on the right side of the pitch and further away from them.

What I didn't expect was to be shown that we have a young striker who has such good control and a bit of confidence about him. Rakish Bingham looked the part and I expect even Eddie Howe will have been watching him with a smile on his face. Bingham is currently on trial with the Cherries but he is a Wigan player and played 11 games on loan at Falkirk last season. I thought he offered himself to the ball well and linked with Rantie especially well. He is only 20 years-old so a good potential signing for the first team let alone the Development squad from what I saw. Sticking a goal away in the FC Copenhagen friendly won't have done his case any harm. I'd like to see more of him and hope he plays in some more of the friendlies coming up.

Bingham was one of the more exciting aspects of the second half of the FC Copenhagen game, but the players on show in that half seemed to find it more hard going against the Danish team. Flahavan also had a bit more to do apart from picking the ball out of the net twice. I did not see FC Copenhagen's first goal or the penalty incident that led to the second, (O'Kane was said to be the culprit) but it is fair to say that the start of the second half was none too good for the Cherries as they conceded two goals in the space of a couple of minutes. Concentration was probably not what it could have been and we know what that is like when you are playing in the Championship so I hope Eddie makes the players switch on to such things. Gisalson and Mussis scored the goals for FC Copenhagen.

Last night the club put up the full 90 minutes again on the official AFCB website so you could see the goals but it appears to have been taken down again. Perhaps they don't want Championship teams making too many notes. I did find a back link to the first half though here while it is kept alive. Some how it still edits out Ritchie's first half goal!

After a bit of digging though I have found the match highlights with some goals for you all.

Kyle Cotter and his World Cup Watch is back to preview the third/fourth place play-off match between Brazil and Netherlands on World Cup Chimes - is it a waste of time?   

AFCB show first live match on YouTube 2-2 with FC Copenhagen

Match Report
FC Copenhagen 2 v 2 AFCB

AFCB offered supporters the chance to view this match live on YouTube for free which was another first for the club. The numbers steadily reached 500 then 1225 as we approached the 5.30 kick off and while all we could hear was the wind for a while the Cherries looked great in their new home kit, while FC Copenhagen were all in white. AFCB just had the names on their shirts and no numbers on their backs. The sound was a bit iffy and no commentary but we could hear the shouts of the players.  Alongside was a commentary box for fans and while there were some interesting comments I won't repeat any of them here.

AFCB won the first two corners and looked threatening with Adam Smith having an early shot blocked. Matt Ritchie hit the deck twice in short succession but got up okay. AFCB's movement looked a class above the Danish side. AFCB had lined up 3-5-2 from what I could see and had a third corner on 12 minutes. FC Copenhagen had to play almost as a sweeper a couple of times to cut out through balls.

No22 got a yellow on 22 minutes for a two-footed challenge on Arter which Harry was none to pleased about. Wilson then had a long range effort deflected wide for another Cherries corner. FC Copenhagen then won a foul on the left wing as their no11 went down. The viewers were now up to 1473 as we approached 30 minutes.

Smith won a direct free kick then in a good position outside the box, but it was driven high and wide. It was at this point that I saw they were playing with a World Cup Brazuca ball. While AFCB had most of the ball there had been no clear chances up until this stage. Another AFCB corner came on 36 minutes but nothing came of it.

FC Copenhagen had a free kick on 38 minutes, but it was chipped straight out by No 24. Elphick was a bit more busy now making clearances as the Danish team got into the game. There were 1571 viewers by the time we had got to 40 minutes. AFCB then scored and because of the buffered streaming most of us probably missed it. Apparently Ritchie scored.

I turned on the link for the second half to see the score was 1-1. Then within a few second the ball was on the spot and FC Copenhagen had made it 2-1. Don't you just love buffered live streaming! I was then Re-tweeting the second half link as many fans had missed FC Copenhagen's link for teh second half. Flahavan, Francis, Cook, Daniels, Fraser, O'Kane, Pitman, Macca, Bingham, Rantie and McQuoid were on second half. It was the Danes now giving AFCB the run around. With the hour mark approaching FC Copenhagen's no10 tested Flahavan to his right, but Flav's got down well. Rantie stole in on the right wing on 63 minutes and pulled a good ball back but no AFCB player could get on to it. Flav's now down again to his left. Charlie Daniels seemed intent in running into people rather than going round them. Second half viewing figures were over 2000 now, so I think I did my bit in getting the numbers up.

Francis was chipping balls in deep behind the FC Copenhagen defence, but AFCB's midfield was struggling to keep the ball. O'Kane did not seem to be getting into the game much. We had reached the 70 minute mark. A free kick was pumped up to FC Copenhagen's no22 he twisted and turned and just smashed his effort over. Bingham then pounced on some sloppy play from the Danes and made it 2-2. Fraser then had the keeper at full stretch on 75 minutes after a great little run on the right. It was end-to-end now and 32 put in a ball across AFCB's six yard box that almost provided a goal, but it was put out for a corner.

Pitman was next to have a deflected shot go close on 77 minutes after some good work by Bingham. A sweeping move through the right side of the field then almost saw O'Kane trick his way through but his shot went just wide of the right post. It was good interplay with Rantie involved. Rantie was then taken down with just seven minutes left on the clock, but a long way out from goal. Daniels was having a bit of ball control issues, but the ball was mainly at AFCB players' feet as we entered the last five minutes. 

For all the moaning about the buffered streaming there were some 2276 dedicated viewers watching the game at this point. FC Copenhagen had a free kick 25 yards out wide on the right but only saw the ball quickly cleared by the reds. The whistle went with 89 minutes on the clock but we'll give the ref the benefit of the doubt.

Top of the AFCB goal scoring chart go Ritchie and Bingham - bet you did not expect that. You can still vote on our poll for first team top scorer by the way - see the panel on the right.

Summary
I thoroughly enjoyed the live stream as an experiment and I hope that AFCB consider doing it again some time. While I only saw two of the four goals go in it was entertaining and just great to see AFCB players back on the pitch. I thought Arter had a particularly string first 45 minutes and when Rakish Bingham came on in the second half he played very well. I am not sure how much Eddie Howe will have learnt from the game, but  at least those that played got 45 minutes under their belt against a competent side that caused AFCB plenty of problems. I am interested to hear what Tommy Elphick will say in his diary.

AFCB 1st half
Buchel, Smith, Elphick,Harte, Cargill, Ritchie, Arter, Gosling, Kermorgant, Pugh, Wilson

AFCB 2nd half
Flahavan, Francis, Cook, Daniels, O'Kane, Pitman, MacDonald, Bingham, Rantie and McQuoid.