Sky presenters get to work at AFC Bournemouth (videos)

There was plenty of fun and a few jobs for Sky presenters Jim white and Natalie Sawyer at Dean Court before the Middlesbrough match. I got down to the ground early as I knew they would be around and I wanted to see whether the banter that we often see on screen is the same when they would be meeting the fans and hopefully doing some work to keep AFCB bringing in the cash.

It started  out as a friendly competition to puts some names and numbers on the back of shirts. 

Jim was rather chuffed with his Scottish McRitchie shirt.

Natalie was taking it very seriously and wanted to do a good
 job especially with Jim trying to put her off.

Natalie's turn to make Callum Wilson's shirt.

The Sky Bet Transfer Fund had arranged for Jim and Natalie to be job transferred from their TV studio to the ground as a way of meeting some of the fans and helping out on match day. I caught up with the two presenters as they were heading for the club shop. Jim was keen to get his hands on a McRitchie shirt following the call up for AFCB's new Scottish international squad member who will hopefully get to play in the Euro 2016 qualifiers now. So Barry in the shop got Jim to work on the shirt press to see if Jim could get the letters on straight and Jim managed to keep his yellow tie safe from danger and was quickly bragging about what a great job he had done, before Nathalie got her chance to make a Callum Wilson shirt. I am not to sure if she was confident when she heard the number she had to put on the shirt was  number 13, while Jim was doing everything he could to put her off asking if she had printed 31.

The two presenters moved on to selling some merchandise on the front till, although the queue was building quickly with the long conversations that were now taking place as everyone wanted to have a chat with the likable presenters, while Jim was cracking jokes all the time and putting smiles on faces.

Behind the till in the shop

Serving customers.

Natalie was drawing in the crowds outside.

Jim was also getting lots of photos taken.

Outside Natalie was certainly getting a lot of attention as she did a bit better at selling the Matchday programmes than Jim. The male fans were keen to get a few selfies with Natalie who was more than happy to oblige as long as she out sold Jim which was never really a problem for her.

Natalie is much in demand.

Jim goes close!

I also managed to have a word with Jim and Natalie and thanked them on behalf of our competition winners as Sky Bet had given us three pairs of tickets in the end to give away to AFCB fans for the Middlesbrough match which proved to be a big hit.

At half time the two presenters also had a go at hitting the cross bar, but I think they both need to spend a bit more time on the training pitch before they have another go in front of the crowds.

AFCB International watch Finally, well done to Shaun MacDonald in coming on for Wales yesterday in the 84th minute to help see Wales get a 0-3 away win against Israel.

What is the best way of taking on Boro?

AFCB have now got a massive game to try and take charge of on Saturday. It will be Eddie Howe's task to get players and the crowd up for this game if they needed to get excited about it after the disappointment of the midweek result. Again Eddie refuses to be downhearted about not getting all three points at Cardiff and if the team can get a win against Middlesbrough, the point against Cardiff will look a lot better.

Can AFCB do better than another draw against Boro?

The Cherries must go into the game playing with the same confidence and style of play as if they were still top. Any hesitancy will surely be picked up by Boro's players who are themselves on a great run. But if the Cherries can start well I believe that Boro will be the ones looking at themselves and wondering what happens if they get nothing at Dean Court.

This is where we all find out about what AFCB are made of. Have they got the will to beat the big sides and how much do they want to be the ones on top? If they play as if it were their last game of the season and winner takes all, then I think that would be the kind of commitment that they will need to show. If the goals do start to fly in against Boro it could be a great boost for the team as they go into the international break and so far this season the team has done well going into the breaks.

Like Eddie Howe, I don't see much wrong with how the Cherries are playing at the moment. The defending at corners and free kicks is important. I'd probably say there are some better teams at defending set-pieces than AFCB in the league, but it is up to our players not to allow so many of these situations. So how do we play against Boro? By not making mistakes at the back, keeping our heads when defending and giving the fans something to shout about right from the very start. But Eddie Howe will have been planning how this game needs to go for some time now and I am hoping that he has found more than a few weaknesses in Middlesbrough's game that AFCB can exploit. UTCIAD!

SKY Bet Competition Winners announced!
The winners of the Sky Bet Transfer Fund competition have been announced. We had so many entries in the end that Sky Bet decided to give away three pairs of tickets to the AFC Bournemouth v Middlesbrough game! The winners can be seen with their winning tweets on the side bar of the blog.

Don't for get to register for the SKY Bet Transfer Fund to win £250,000 funds for AFCB and £5000 for yourself. 

COMPETITION: SKY BET and Cherry Chimes team up to offer two match tickets

Sponsored article

Jim and Nat will be at the Goldsands Stadium on Saturday.

Here is a generous gift for two lucky AFC Bournemouth fans.

The Sky Bet Transfer Fund gives one fan the chance to win £250,000 for their Football League club to spend on new players in the January transfer window. In addition to a cash prize of £5,000. To sign up and start collecting tokens for AFC Bournemouth now, visit: Sky Bet.

As part of this, Sky Bet put Transfer Fund duo Jim White and Natalie Sawyer on the Transfer List and gave Football League fans the chance to win the pair at their league on a match day. The first of these was won by an AFC Bournemouth fan which means the pair will be transferring from the news room to Dean Court this Saturday. Keep your eye out for Jim and Nat before the game as they will be helping the club in various roles from selling programmes, to working in the club shop.

We’re also giving away a pair of tickets for tomorrows big game against Middlesbrough thanks to Sky Bet.

To enter all you have to do is answer this question:
Tell us who you would like AFC Bournemouth to buy should we win the £250,000 Transfer Fund.

The best answer will win the tickets to tomorrow’s game!

Simply Tweet your answer to @peterbell19 and follow to enter the competition.

Answers need to be in by 6pm tonight to be in with a chance of winning - so get tweeting. We hope to announce the winner before 6.30pm.

Job transfer for Jim and Nat. I hear the flood lights are a bit dirty!

Media coverage of Cherries set to escalate

It should be good news for all league fans who can get their hands on internet access that the SKYBet leagues have done a deal with the football clubs and YouTube to bring even more video coverage and news of the game to supporters. We are in an age of fast communication and social media is booming. There is more information and news coming out of the clubs and I suppose Cherry Chimes is just another product of that.

I am pleased that information about AFCB has grown so much. Back in the 1970s all we had was a few bits of news in the match day programme and if you were lucky a match report in the local rag. I used to fill the time by reading comics like Roy of the Rovers or enjoying the glossy pictures in Shoot. I am not sure my bedroom wall ever recovered from the blue tack that was supposed to come off without peeling off all the paint as well. I also still miss those cardboard league ladders that took hours to update. 

I confess that most of the posters were of Emlyn Hughes or Kenny Dalglish, but you would have found it hard to get many pictures of John Impey or Milton Graham. As a nine year old, I did always wonder why AFCB were not as good as Liverpool. 

The digital media age has changed all that and fast download and video content have us all captivated. In fact, I wonder where some of the players find the time to train with the amount of interviews they have. Such open access is now giving fans more chance to get close to their heroes and to understand them better.

Our appetite for news grows stronger and I expect you can probably watch football 24/7 if you really did have the time to do it. Well, I'll try and keep us as best we can at Cherry Chimes by adding our own bit of gossip and you'll notice that we have now teamed up with NewsNow to get our news articles listed along with most of the other major news sources on AFCB. Hopefully, we will still get seen in and amongst all the new traffic.