What a difference two weeks makes. Fresh off a convincing 2-0 home win against Leyton Orient, today's match against top of the table Tranmere marked Eddie Howe's first match in charge of AFC Bournemouth since January 2011. Having had a full week to implement his desired changes, fans headed to Dean Court today hoping see some of the football that had made Howe's first spell in charge so magical. Howe's return clearly had an impact on many Bournemouth fans as the home crowd increased for the second week running, giving the players a much needed boost for such a tough game. League leaders Tranmere came into the match with 9 wins and 3 draws, seemingly taking League One by storm, with goals flying into their opponents goals. An injury to Richard Hughes gave Harry Arter a return to the starting lineup, while Josh McQuoid also came into the team.
The Match
The Cherries started out reasonably brightly to the match, the ball was being sprayed around the pitch in a controlled manner, although there was a notable lack of cutting edge. Lee Barnard found himself once again isolated up front with Tranmere's big centre halves keeping him quiet, and crosses from both wings came to little result. Tranmere were very organized, something expected of the league leaders, with a strong defence opting to consistently hoof it up to the large forwards, Cassidy and Jervis. The beginning of the game was largely uneventful apart from a few bookings, notably when Simon Francis' completely mistimed a tackle and took out Tranmere winger Adam McGurk. Despite the Cherries domination of possession the visitors took the lead on the 39th minute; Miles Addison took the occupation of resident circus clown, as he misplaced a pass out of play, then mistimed a tackle from the resulting throw-in, leading to Cassidy having all the space in the world to float a cross into the unmarked Jervis who duly put the ball into the back of the net. The remainder of the first half slowly drifted, with a mediocre Charlie Daniels' free-kick the only chance for Bournemouth.
Following (hopefully) an encouraging half-time team talk, Bournemouth came out for the second-half revitalized. As against Leyton Orient the week before, the Bournemouth fans really got behind the team, acting as a twelfth man. The breakthrough for the Cherries' came after 51 minutes, as Marc Pugh curled a free kick in from the corner of the area, beating everyone before nestling in the corner of Owain Fon-Williams' net. The crowd grew louder, Dean Court was rocking and the ball was almost being sucked back into Tranmere's half by the energetic home crowd. Bournemouth's midfield began to look increasingly dangerous, with Marc Pugh- possibly League One's best winger- a constant threat to the Tranmere defence. The second goal came after 58 minutes; Josh McQuoid got the ball down the right, he crossed it to Harry Arter, who controlled the ball (via a blatant handball) and smashed the ball into the top corner. Momentum can have extreme effects in football, and in a short space of time all of Tranmere's hard work had gone down the drain. The next fifteen minutes were quiet, though Tranmere expectedly started to push forward in an attempt to salvage something from the match. Their hopes were dashed soon after; A training ground free-kick from the Cherries grabbed their third goal- Matt Tubbs rolled a free kick past another player to the onrushing Francis who rocketed the ball into the bottom corner, 3-1, party time. Credit has to be given to Tranmere, who in an increasingly bleak situation continued to push on until the last minute, showing the determination required in a winning side. However, for all their efforts they could not muster up a goal, the only chance came when David James spectacularly saved Liam Palmer's volley from a couple of yards out, although Palmer was later ruled offside.
My Thoughts
This was a much needed win against possibly the best team to visit Dean Court this season. It was a tough task for the team to win today, but they pulled it off through hard work against formidable opponents. Eddie and Jason are clearly already having an effect on the players, there was just a noticeable different in hunger and fight amongst them today, tackles were won and the ball was fought for. Coming back from 1-0 down against the league leaders is an achievement in itself, but to control the second half and score 3 goals is outstanding. Of course a lot of hard work still needs to go in for this team to reach its full potential, but today certainly exemplified that we have a squad capable of keeping up with the best League One has to offer. There's still a very long way to go before we can start dreaming of promotion, but the signs right now are very much pointing in the right direction.
Player Ratings
James: 7- Good handling and distribution, including a fantastic save at the end of the game, kicking could be improved.
Francis: 8- Mr. Consistent, solid in defence and a threat going forward, his fantastic goal capped off a fine performance from himself and the team.
Addison: 6- A good second half, but his mistake led to the goal today, showing that he is all too often a liability for the defence.
Elphick: 7- Did he transform into someone else? A great performance from him today, he won headers, tackles and everything else in between- possibly could have marked Jervis for the goal?
Daniels: 8- He's back. Liberated from Groves' negative ideas, his link up play with Pugh today added a different element to the team's game, much more to come from him I think.
McQuoid: 6- Josh had a decent game today, but I felt that he didn't get as involved as he could have done, and sometimes his touch was lacking.
MacDonald: 7- A good performance today from Shaun but he could have had a bigger impact. His passing was reliable and he was there to win tackles, but I wanted to see more going forward.
Arter: 9- MOM and deservedly so. His booking was a blessing in disguise as he showed a maturity not to get himself sent off that he would have done in the passing. Consistently picking out the rights passes, getting the ball into Tranmere's half, and to top it all off, a superb volley.
Pugh: 8- Could he be the best player in the league? Maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but he's certainly up there. Time and time again right backs struggle to keep up with him and his seemingly endless bag of Cruyff turns. Everytime he gets the balls he's dangerous, and his performance today showed the idiocy of Grove's diamond formation.
Grabban: 6- He works hard but every game it feels like he doesn't have that cutting edge needed going forward. There is a lack of creativity coming from him, and he always looks out of ideas when he takes on a defender.
Barnard: 6- May as well have not turned up for the first-half, but he came more into the game into the second half. He doesn't exactly justify his place in the side, especially when on a (rumoured) 12k a week deal.
Tubbs: 7- Good energy and hold up play from the Cherries' record signing, certainly displaying a different side to his game when he replaced the injured Grabban.
Partington: N/A- Too little time to have a significant impact.
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| Harry Arter- Bournemouth's star player today |
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