AFC Bournemouth returned to Dean Court on Wednesday night to face Preston North End.
AFC Bournemouth head coach Scott Parker made a few changes from the side that beat Reading at the weekend, one forced due to injury.
Left-back Jordan Zemura was missing with injury, leaving Parker with a conundrum over the selection at full-back.
Ideally, the straight swap could have been on-loan Leeds United defender Leif Davis, however, he has been struggling with a sickness bug. Another option could have been Adam Smith, however, he is also injured. Could Robbie Brady have stepped in? The new signing hasn’t kicked a ball in a competitive match since he played 22 minutes against Qatar in a friendly for Republic Of Ireland in March and unsurprisingly was lacking match fitness.
So with those three options unlikely to offer an option for the full 90 minutes, this left Parker with two choices. Break up the Gary Cahill and Lloyd Kelly partnership at the heart of the Cherries defence, a partnership that has seen the Cherries boast an enviable defensive record this season and move Kelly to left-back and partner Chris Mepham with Cahill or just play Mepham out of position at left-back. Parker opted for the latter.
His other two changes were to bring in Jamal Lowe as the left-sided attacker, instead of Jaidon Anthony and then Ben Pearson came in for Gavin Kilkenny.
The Cherries dominated possession but lacked a creative spark and ultimately this cost them their unbeaten run.
After the match, Parker told Sky Sports…
“Preston came with a very good plan, restricted spaces and we found it hard. We huffed and puffed but were not at our clinical best. We lacked that little bit of guile and creative spark. The second goal we conceded was poor on our part. Overall, it was below par in terms of where our standards are set.
“We pride ourselves on keeping clean sheets and tonight that was not the case. I am sure there are areas where we need to improve. The lads are disappointed that after 15 games unbeaten they have tasted defeat. It is a bit of realism and a bit of rationale. We need to bin that while also going over it and work out where we can be better. We will improve, will get better for this and go again.”
Scott Parker gives his post-match thoughts to afcbTV 🗣
— AFC Bournemouth 🍒 (@afcbournemouth) November 3, 2021
Man of the match against Preston
Billing
Mepham
Lerma
Christie
Written by Audenshaw Cherry
We were always going to lose at one time and it was always likely to be against a lower team who put a whole team behind the ball and then suckered us on the break. Preston did that twice tonight.
We really did miss Jaidon Anthony and Jordan Zemura tonight and, probably, Gavin Kilkenny.
A really poor performance but we are still top of the league.
We all, fans, players and manager, have to learn from this and move on.
Hear from @GaryJCahill after yesterday's 2-1 defeat to Preston 💬
— AFC Bournemouth 🍒 (@afcbournemouth) November 4, 2021
Your say…
billythekid wrote…
Had a nasty feeling that something might go wrong tonight and that’s what happened.
We just did not really cause Preston any problems in the first half except for a Billing shot off target.
They took their two chances in the second half and we suffered from it even though we equalised.
They broke our four-game unbeaten run last season and they have broken our much longer run tonight.
We need to put that behind us on Saturday and get back to winning ways. – Join the conversation, click here.
Here's how tonight's results have impacted the #SkyBetChampionship table!#EFL pic.twitter.com/38KwcN1TQ7
— Sky Bet Championship (@SkyBetChamp) November 3, 2021
