Can our back four improve quickly?

Eddie Howe may have to ask himself some difficult questions in the coming weeks. Looking in the mirror at your players performances is something he does every day, but when they are making the same mistakes it is not easy to plough on waiting for the day they make better decisions. Still that is the task of a coach and manager. It may be that AFCB's back four are not good enough at the moment to be keeping clean sheets at Championship level. They can do it, but it is achieving it regularly that will make AFCB into a winning team.

Charlie Daniels is open someone give him the ball.

While you can go into the market and look to change things that way, it would be sensible for Eddie to stick with his current crop of defenders if he feels they are almost there in making those right decisions. We have seen them get it right and also very wrong and it is a constant battle. The players they are up against as well are forcing some mistakes. What we need is for our defenders to be learning. You don't get long to learn and the rate of that learning is shown in the league table.

Tommy will be hurting this week. I hope he is determined to
lead his men to a win at Sheffield Wednesday.

I can't say that any one player has more often than not played poorly at the back. The defence should be looked at as a whole as errors are coming from different players and more often than not when there is little pressure on the ball. I liked the disciplined way that AFCB tried to defend against Reading and to an extent against QPR, even though they did not get a result in both matches. But at home the team seem to find it much harder to get the right balance when they go forward and leave the back exposed. 

Simon Francis has been tested this season.

The team are doing well and getting it right for a lot of the time but they only have to make a couple of poor decisions and find themselves a couple of goals down in the Championship. What I like are the comments coming out of Dean Court from the players. They are not disheartened but are keeping the end goal in mind to stay up this season and admirably wanting to achieve that playing with some style. It may be a bit uneasy for us fans to watch in the stands, but if the players are committed I believe they will start improving. 

Cook's inexperience was shown up a little on Saturday but he'll come back stronger.

Elliott Ward is AFCB's first big summer signing

Well everyone was taken by surprise when AFCB announced its first big summer signing tonight (16 year old goalkeeper Jordan Holmes was signed yesterday). The signature of Elliott Ward on a one-year deal will add experience to the battle for central defenders, but the short term of the contract is intriguing after most of our players are on three year contracts. Perhaps Elliott's age of 28 is a consideration and whether he felt he would get enough playing time to sign for a two-year deal. The wages may also mean a one-year deal was the best the club could offer.

No matter, we have another experienced defender which immediately will get everyone wondering whether Miles Addison will fight for a place or if his days at the Cherries are numbered. Surely Eddie will want as big a squad as the club can afford if Miles is capable of competing for a first team spot along with Ward. It is going to take something special to dislodge Cook and Elphick but we certainly need some top rate cover in case of injuries.

When was the last time signed an ex-Premiership player? Darren Anderton comes to mind. Oh, yes the last one of course was David James, although he came from a Championship side at the time. Still the signings are certainly bigger than the lower leagues now. UTCIAD!

I am trying to find out from my Plymouth contact what he remembers about Elliott and if I hear something I'll up date you all on how he did down there.

Okay, Plymouth fan view just in:

I remember Elliott. He came to us on loan, I think Tony Pulis was manager. He was a very good defender for us. Best player we had and the manager got the best out of him. We tried to buy him but could not afford the £1m price tag.

Sorry to say, however, after keeping tabs on him elsewhere, I think he went to Coventry after us and perhaps got lazy. He must have pulled his socks up though at Norwich. Hopefully, you can keep him motivated especially with your manager.

Argyle can only dream of signing a player of his quality.

Colin Waite.