A Welcome Back To Dean Court For Gary O’Neil

Written by billythekid

After the defeat against Everton at Goodison Park, it’s the worst start for a Cherries team since the first eight games 29 years ago in the 1994-95, Great Escape season. The first four league games ended in defeat and our club didn’t have a permanent manager, it was run by members of the team, which included John Williams (Willo). Mel Machin took over as our manager on the 1st September, the run of defeats continued for the next three games, and in the eighth game, our club drew with Chester City for our first point.

Our first game back after the international break is at home at Dean Court on Saturday at 3 p.m. It’s a game our team should be looking to get their first win and 3 points, which would double the season’s tally of 3 points from 8 games played so far. Our opponents are Wolves who under their new manager Gary O’Neil are 14th in the league table with 8 points.

Gary O’Neil will be pitting his wits against the man who replaced him at Dean Court, Andoni Iraola, it will be interesting to see who comes out on top. Gary should get a warm friendly reception from the Cherries fans, he went about his job with little complaint and kept our club in the top league.

Up until three days before the new season started, Wolves manager was Julen Lopetegui who had only been in the job for nine months after taking over in November with Wolves bottom of the Premier League after 15 games. He guided them to safety, with the club finishing in 13th place, two places and two points above AFCB. But he left the club by mutual agreement after not being happy with certain things at the club.

Gary O’Neil immediately stepped in as the new Wolves manager for the start of the new season. In his seventh game in the Premier League as Wolves manager, achieved what AFCB managers had tried but failed and that was to beat Manchester City. The Cherries had played City in 18 league games and 1 League Cup game, two league games ending in a draw.

Wolves on their away travels so far have beaten Everton 0-1, and drawn with Luton Town 1-1. They have lost two, at Old Trafford 1-0 against Manchester United and 3-2 against Crystal Palace. At home, they have won one and a big win as well against the reigning League Champions Manchester City by 1-0. Wolves have drawn one game against Aston Villa. They have been beaten by Brighton 1-3 and Liverpool 1-4.

The last time AFCB met Wolves at Dean Court was at the end of August last year and it was Gary O’Neil’s first game as our interim manager after the departure of Scott Parker, it ended 0-0 draw.

In our home games against Wolves, AFCB have W 2, D 3, L 1.
In all competitions, AFCB have W 7, D 4, L 5.

AFCB Team News
The latest player on the injury list (7 players) is Philip Billing who picked up a knock during the Everton game and pulled out of the Denmark squad. Chris Mepham and Lloyd Kelly were both expected to be back after the international break. No news on players away on international duty.

AFCB Player To Watch
After being out with injury, Marcus Tavernier is hopefully with each game, getting back to form, and against Everton had 7 dribbles, 5 more than any other player for either team. Up front, Dominic Solanke is due another goal.

Wolves Team News
In the Summer transfer window, more players departed than were signed. On the injury front, Hugo Bueno has been out with a hamstring injury. Mario Lemina is suspended after picking up two yellow cards against Aston Villa. Jean-Ricner Bellergarde will be available again after completing his three-match ban for getting sent off against Luton Town.

Wolves Player To Watch
Hwang Hee-Chan is their leading scorer with 5 goals in his last 7 league games. In two of these games he came on as a substitute. Leading with 5 assists in his last 6 games is Pedro Neto, he also scored one.

The Referee
Paul Tierney is in charge of this game and he was the referee for one of our games last season, at home against Manchester City.

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