Watford 6-1 Bournemouth

Bournemouth's first away match of the season provided a reality check for Eddie Howe's team, who had come in to the match unbeaten since March and full with confidence. However, despite a magnificent first half that ended 1-1, in the second half everything went pear shaped for The Cherries and both fans and players were left to ponder just how it had all gone so wrong in the last 45 minutes.

There's a lot of differences between The Championship and League One, with most Championship clubs boasting proud histories and very large fanbases. That was evident as I walked through Watford town centre to the game, the bars were packed with fans in yellow and red and black, all enjoying a customary drink before heading off to Vicarage Road. Compared to a lot of clubs in this division, Watford are not actually a huge club, but with all due respect it was a bit different to playing at a grim northern town with an attendance just over 4,000. Watford had sold out before Saturday and there was definitely a buzz in the air, with most Hornets fans likely expecting their team to trounce their newly promoted opposition. Most Bournemouth fans likely did not expect much out of the game, but little did we know what was to come...

Vicarage Road

For 45 minutes at least, I'm sure many Watford fans were slightly worried whether their team were going to get a result. In usual Bournemouth fashion, The Cherries started off in panic mode as usual when we play in front of a big crowd and showed too much respect to Watford. Bournemouth looked nervy on the ball and were backing off the Watford players and they started the game on the back foot. Unfortunately awful defending at a corner let the ball roll through to Gabriele Angella who duly smashed the ball home from 6 yards. But after conceding, Bournemouth suddenly took control of the match and for the remaining 30 minutes of the half were dominant over their hosts, with Lewis Grabban having a (seemingly) stonewall penalty appeal turned down by the consistently awful referee. Harry Arter was once again controlling the midfield and Ryan Fraser was constantly enjoying success down the right wing, most fans in the away end thought we had equalized when Grabban's close shot rolled past Watford goalkeeper Manuel Almunia and into the side netting. Thankfully, the equalizer the visitors deserved finally came on the 30 minute mark; quick thinking from the free kick resulted in a through ball to Fraser down the right who crossed along the floor to Grabban who slid in and scored, cueing wild celebrations in the away end. Bournemouth continued in the ascendency for the rest of the half, with all the noise coming from the away fans, but they could not grab what would have been a vital second goal.

Bournemouth players and fans celebrate Grabban's equalizer

Similar to Chris Powell last week, whatever Gianfranco Zola said to his players at half-time worked. I knew Watford would come out all guns blazing and if we held out for ten minutes, their fans would get restless and the players would start to become frustrated too. Unfortunately, that man Angella scored his second when  powered home a header from a set-piece only 7 minutes into the half, yet again Bournemouth's poor marking was costing them dearly. Full of life and with all the momentum, The Hornets quickly made it three when Deeney was played in down the right and his deflected shot beat Ryan Allsop and nestled in the goal.

Deeney makes it three

 It was obvious by this point that unless we were careful, there was a very real chance of Watford thrashing us. It was pure naivety from all the players to keep pushing forward at this point, they should have shut up shop and remained calm, sometimes it's just not your day. But Bournemouth insisted on going forward which wasn't helped by the players constantly giving the ball away. Lewis McGugan grabbed the fourth with a goal replicating Deeney's as substitute left-back Ian Harte decided he ought to play right-back for a bit. Obviously the game was over by this point, but the hosts were still keen to inflict further punishment on Bournemouth who just couldn't put a foot right by this point. Watford's fifth came when Elliott Ward tried to control an incoming cross with what looked like a ballet dance move and Deeney picked up the ball, ran around 3 or 4 defenders and rifled the ball past the helpless Allsop once again.

The final whistle could not come soon enough

Then the referee decided it was his time to take centre stage and awarded a penalty to Watford, a completely baffling decision, but it was almost irrelevant by this point, and Deeney converted it to complete his hat-trick. The Bournemouth fans continued to sing and back their team, clapping them off the pitch, while Watford's mascot banged a drum to try and get some noise out of the home fans sitting near us.

In truth, Watford taught us a bit of a footballing lesson yesterday. We were terrific in the first half and arguably unlucky to not go in at the break with the lead, but Troy Deeney and co. showed us what happens when you lose concentration and shape. Watford are one of the best teams in this league, and thankfully most weeks we will play teams not equal to them, but it's clear survival will still be a tough task. Both Eddie and the players will have learned a lot, but they should remember how well they did in the first half and try to build upon the positives from that. It's difficult going from League One where we knew we were one of, if not the best team in the league, to now playing teams with large budgets and international footballers.It's easy to panic now, but if we had drawn our first two games most of us would say it'd been a great start, but we have 3 points on the board still!  Next week we face Wigan, another extremely tough task, so as fans we have to stay grounded and not expect too much, but we do know how good this team can be, and it was just a week ago we were celebrating a comfortable win against Charlton. Onwards and upwards.

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Bournemouth vs Charlton Match Preview

And here we all are once again, the beginning of the football season; 10 months of spending our Saturday's often in towns across the country watching a bunch men kick a ball around. However this year, for Bournemouth fans at least, will be different.  We will all be watching our team in uncharted territory: The Championship. To begin life in the second tier of English football, The Cherries will begin the season against Charlton Athletic for the third time in four years. Charlton finished champions of League One in the 2011/12 season with an impressive 101 points and finished 9th last year in The Championship, meaning this is no easy match for Eddie Howe's men. The past four times the teams have met have resulted in 3 victories for Charlton and one draw- so Bournemouth definitely have a point to prove this Saturday.

Charlton were Champions in 2011

It's safe to say Eddie Howe has plenty to be concerned about ahead on the dawn of the new season. Bournemouth have suffered numerous injuries in pre-season, with star players Matt Ritchie and Brett Pitman the notable concerns for Howe's men. Although The Cherries boast a few quality replacements for Ritchie in Ryan Fraser and Mohamed Coulibaly, no Pitman would leave the home team worryingly toothless up front. While when on form Lewis Grabban and Wes Thomas are dangerous players, both have been firing blanks for a significant amount of time. New signing Mohamed Coulibaly is versatile and has been excellent in pre-season, meaning he could fill Pitman's void should it be needed, but it seems wide or attacking midfield is his natural position. Arguably, Howe's biggest decision will be which defenders he chooses for the starting line-up. Should he opt for his usual 4-4-2 formation, only two out of Cook, Elphick and Ward will start, but he could also choose to begin with 5 at the back, a formation that has been seen in pre-season. Howe has to decide whether to opt for the pairing that led us to promotion, or to choose new signing Ward. While winning this match will not decide the fate of our season, getting off to a good start could be invaluable by the time May comes.

Could Coulibaly be the difference maker on Saturday?

To me, Charlton are somewhat of an unknown quantity. I last saw them when they beat us 3-0 in August 2011, meaning it has been two years since I`ve seen them play. I`ve no doubt though that their squad has changed over that time, due to their promotion to The Championship. However, The Addicks are still managed by Chris Powell, who has had an extremely impressive stint as manager at The Valley.The Addicks also boast two former Bournemouth players in Rhoys Wiggins and Danny Hollands, who both left for the south coast for London after the 2010/11 season.

Wiggins is sure to receive a hostile reception on his return

To help us gain some insight to our opponents on Saturday, three Charlton fans- Dan Fincy (@MiniFinchy), Scott Wilkes (@TheAddick95) and James Vogle (james_vogle) were kind enough to answer some questions for me.

Charlton finished a very respectable 9th place last season, and were only 3 points off the play-offs. How did you view your first season back in the Championship? 

DF: Our first season back was exceptional, very proud of how we did and if a few results went in our favour it might have not been Palace in the play-offs and it would have been us. I cant complain really we did very well and beat expectations which was very important for the fans and for the players we knew we had a good squad

SW: Incredible! Shaky start but had some great results (E.g. 5-4 win vs Cardiff and 6-0 win vs Barnsley) and finished the season the league's form team and only like 3 points from the top 6. We only spent 500k in the summer and finished a couple points off teams like Leicester and Bolton with virtually our league 1 team.

JV: Incredible! Shaky start but had some great results (E.g. 5-4 win vs Cardiff and 6-0 win vs Barnsley) and finished the season the league's form team and only like 3 points from the top 6. We only spent 500k in the summer and finished a couple points off teams like Leicester and Bolton with virtually our league 1 team.

Are you satisfied with the club's summer transfers?

DF: erm...in a bomb shell no. We only have 1 forward and only managed signings of Mark Gower and Richard Wood. Wood gives us a good back line again since we lost defender Taylor. Gower we had last year on loan and slotted in nicely so it was good to get him full time.

SW: What transfers? Only signed Mark Gower and Richard Wood, both on frees. The owners aren't giving Powell a penny to spend this summer which means we can't improve the squad and only have one senior striker. Starting the season without a no. 9 or 10.  

JV: I am not satisfied at all with our summer transfers, releasing so many players which we could of got a decent amount of money for, releasing danny haynes was a big shame as it is not his fault however he is injury prone and a club like us with our financial stability he is not worth keeping especially as 'apparently' he was demanding higher wages. The best bit of our transfer activity this summer was us releasing Ricardo Fuller, scoring 5 goals in 31 games and hardly playing at all due to lack of fitness and injuries, with him being our highest earner aswell getting 20k a week I am glad to see the back of him! However he is now re-training with us which I do not think I have ever seen before. The worst worry for me is that we now only have one striker which is our fan favourite Yann Kermogant, as good as he is, when we played a 4-5-1 last season with Yann up top on his own just simply did not work, personally I do not think a 4-5-1 ever works due to the fact that the striker is always isolated. I think that if we get another striker who is proven to score a lot of goals then I will be happy.

Are there any specific players that Bournemouth fans should be worried about?

DF:  We have a few Chris Solly our right back and Wiggins,ex Bournemouth, are both very dangerous going forward and like to create chances and are very quick. Yann Kermorgant too, he's big and and wins headers all the time.

SW: Chris Solly - Best RB in the football league

Rhoys Wiggins - Phenomenal going forward and will up his game when he's getting booed :-)

Johnnie Jackson - Captain, always likely to score

Bradley Pritchard - Never stops running, and finally adding goals to his game

Callum Harriott - Will destroy Francis (Who is the worst RB i've ever seen play for Charlton)
Yann Kermorgant - Already a Charlton legend, will win everything in the air no matter who' he's against. Warrior

JV: You should be worried about our young tricky winger callum harriott, he came through the ranks at Charlton and has had a cracking pre season almost scoring in every game, bearing in mind he is only 19 and featured regularly towards the end of last season, a very exciting prospect for the future.

How are ex-Bournemouth players Danny Hollands and Rhoys Wiggins faring at Charlton?

DF: Danny Hollands had a great season in League One and played brilliantly all season but went out on loan last season to Swindon and didn't really feature last season at all. But in pre-season Hollands has been on fire for us and has scored 3 goals. Rhoys has been unbelievable when fit. He missed a big part of last season but when he was playing you knew he was there.

SW: Hollands was class in league 1 but couldn't adjust to the league last year so went out on loan, only a back up player now. Whereas Wiggins was class in league 1 and in the championship, had a couple injuries last year though. Probably our best LB since the legend Chris Powell. 

JV: Rhoys Wiggins in my opinion is one of the best signings we made. Featuring every week and giving 100% every week, us as a club could not ask for any more, however he did miss quite a bit of last season due to a injury, but he came back more determined than ever and has come straight back in to the starting 11. Danny Hollands had a cracking first season for us being a key player in our promotion up to the championship, however last season he did not feature as he was not part of our plans due to other players playing better than him, although I do not think we gave him a big enough chance to prove himself at this level. He was loaned out to swindon playing 10 games and scoring 2 goals until it got ended shortly due to him getting injured and came back for treatment.

Finally, will you be making the trip to the South Coast on Saturday?on Saturday

DF: No Sadly not. I am on holiday but I would love to be going down, first game of the season are always brilliant and every club loves them. I am jealous of the fans going down! COYR!

SW: Wanted to, tickets sold out before I had a bit of cash on the hip. Went last time though when we won 1-0.

JV:  Yes, I will be making the trip to the South Coast saturday, I missed out on it 2 seasons back due to me being on holiday, but I can not wait for it as we always seem to play a good game of football and I like Bournemouth, they are a nice club, I simply could not miss a season opener down the sea side! Come on you reds!

Post Match Thoughts: Sheffield United 2-1 Bournemouth

Another match, another failure to gain three points from the Cherries. Since early February, Bournemouth have been struggling to win their games at all, let alone convincingly. Before this drop in form, the Cherries were right in the mix for the play-off race, only a couple of points off 6th place Stevenage. Curiously, the team played better before all of the money was spent of new players, hinting at a possible lack of cohesion and spirit within the squad.

Today Bournemouth continued their winless run after losing 2-0 at promotion chasers Sheffield United.  Since Paul Groves came in charge, the team has played the game in a different manner, going back to the Bournemouth faithful's favourite passing football, rather than the hoofball recently instilled by Bradbury towards the end of his regime. However, in 3 games Groves' team has only gained 2 out of 9 points, highlighted by dropping a 2-0 lead at Stevenage, and failing to beat fellow mid-table languishers Yeovil at home. While we could never expect anything from an away match at a team like Sheffield United, it is worrying how close the team is to the relegation zone (8 points). Suddenly, the team has to look down the table and begin worrying about the results of the teams down in the relegation fight, because Bournemouth aren't safe right now. Though, hopefully a win or two in the final games should guarantee another season in League One.

 The defence has played reasonably well all year, and Cook, Zubar, Daniels, Francis is a more than good enough group of starters for any ambitious team in this league. When their is little going forward, the defence did well to limit a 2nd place team with Ched Evans up front to only two goals. The concern is at the other end of the pitch, where as Thomas' goals have dried out, so has the whole team's production. Next season, it is vital Tubbs and Thomas learn to play together, with Malone, McDermott and Pugh contributing also. In my opinion, the squad has too much dead weight for it to carry out a successful promotion campaign. These constantly injured players and those not able to play up to standard in League One need to be replaced this summer. Most importantly, Eddie Mitchell must get of his stool in the stadium bar, and get to work on hiring a smart, experienced and winning manager that will take advantage of the funds the club has.

Up the Cherries in all departments,

Max.