Have Bournemouth become a 20 minute team?

There is a certain fondness to seeing AFCB racing towards the North stand in the final quarter of a match knowing that they are capable of getting some last minute goals. It has almost become a staple diet of Saturday football, but I am not so sure it is really that healthy to always be in such a situation chasing a game with the clock running down.

Comeback kings.

Bournemouth have made a habit of finding themselves in such situations this season. They came from behind in such  game against Arsenal and Stoke City in recent home wins and while those games worked out it would not have been a surprise if Bournemouth had not got back into the match with Newcastle. It is almost as if the side needs to have that state of fear about almost losing a game in order to be able to perform at their best. It's madness of course. Bournemouth do need to play better earlier in games, but even the TV pundits that get to cover Bournemouth games now kind of half expect a rousing finish in AFCB games when they are at home, but can the team continue to deliver these kinds of finishes?

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Well, I'd say it is all down to the home crowd. When we want things to happen and build that expectation that the team is going to score, it more than often happens because the players feed off of our excitement. The problem is that kind of energy is coming later and later in games and I don't know if it the cold weather, or just disappointment in not seeing the team playing well, but there has to be more to making a successful team than just having it play for the last 20 minutes of games.

If AFCB don't find a way to play better for longer the will lose games like the one against Newcastle. They can't keep digging themselves out of a hole. So I don't think Bournemouth have become a 20 minute team but they do have an extra gear that we can tap in to when the ground is buzzing and that is where AFCB's games need to be for 90 minutes.

It's never about one individual player, but more a general feeling that the team is now going to be in the front foot as it kicks towards the Steve Fletcher stand. Long may it continue.

AFCB's high fence protection

I bet a lot of you had a good look at the new protection nets behind the goals at the Steve Fletcher end and in front of the Ted MacDougall stand during the player warm ups last Saturday. In fact, I wonder how much of a view some fans had of the players warming up? Still it should mean that there are less balls flying at supporters with the players lining up their shots. I still saw one sorry young chap though on the end of a Harry Arter misfiring blast that climbed over the nets, cannoned off the top of the stadium and as if subliminally controlled hit the unsuspecting child full on the head!

New high fence netting addition to Dean Court.

Having seen Millwall visit the Goldsands stadium the nets could have been better employed in front of their supporters I suppose considering what happened later that afternoon. I don't know if anyone's enjoyment was spoilt by the huge nets but if you wanted to take a photo without seeing black squares in the lens you were probably out of luck unless you moved to either side of the catch nets.

They must have been taken down pretty sharply before the game started because I was watching the players coming in from their warm up and by the time I got back to my seat I couldn't see any nets anymore. If they stop one person from being on the end of an arm breaking Renaldo like strike I guess they are worth putting up, but what do you think? I would hope our strikers are good enough not to hit too many shots wide of the mark but then again, they can be a bit wild at times. There are lots of people that are not able to move out the way quickly, be they a bit older than some of us or confined to a wheel chair. When you consider this you wonder why the nets haven't been put in a long time ago.

One person next to me said perhaps the club was worried about being sued from the balls hitting spectators. However, I would say there most be a bit of risk at any time during a game that you could be hit by a flying ball. I just hope the ground staff are doubly careful when those large nets are dismantled - all we need is for someone to get hit by one of the large poles to really cause a bad injury!

For some more thoughts today on how the atmosphere is around other grounds in the Championship do drop in on our Rival Lines section which looks at what bloggers are writing about their teams lying in positions 12 to 7 in the table. Yes, that does include AFCB!