AFC Bournemouth returned to Dean Court with the club message being read out loud and proud, “together, anything is possible”.
With Scott Parker and his entire backroom staff removed, it was down to Gary O’Neil to take charge in the dugout, alongside Shaun Cooper and Tommy Elphick.
The first big call from O’Neil was to drop goalkeeper Mark Travers from the starting XI, with former Barcelona shot-stopper Neto making his Premier League debut.
New signing Marcos Senesi and Kieffer Moore also dropped to the bench, as the Cherries kicked off in a more familiar variant of 4-2-3-1.
Dominic Solanke returned from injury to lead the line,
After the match, all focus was back on the man who has been put in temporary charge of first-team affairs.
O’Neil told Sky Sports…
“Did I expect my first game (in management) to be in the Premier League off the back of a tough defeat? No, I didn’t. I had 36 hours to think about it and I used all 36 hours thinking.
“The underlying feeling is proud of what they produced and hopefully we can improve certain bits. It all moved pretty quick and I haven’t really had time to breathe or assess where we are.
“As a group, they’re the most honest, hard-working, together, relentless group that I’ve ever been involved with, even in my playing career. You can throw everything at them and they will never quit. And I think we have enough to be competitive at this level.
“From what I asked the boys to do this evening, they produced. They showed commitment, bravery, togetherness in a tough moment, so I’m proud of that.
“Of course, we’ll look to improve certain bits of it, but as a starting point from where we’ve been in the last few weeks it’s a real positive for us.”
Man of the match against Wolves
Kelly
Neto
Tavernier
Christie
Mepham
Lerma
Someone else
"𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘥, 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳."
Gary O'Neil's post-match thoughts 🗣
— AFC Bournemouth 🍒 (@afcbournemouth) August 31, 2022
Written by billythekid
Just got back and for a 0-0 draw, I quite enjoyed it.
Our team badly needed something from this game and though we didn’t get a home win our side got a point and kept a clean sheet.
The first half was end-to-end football but a lot of action without actually anything coming out of it.
Tavernier and Cook in midfield both had good games, Tavernier looks a good player, lost his midfield action in the second half when he went back to defensive duties.
Wolves dominated but just couldn’t produce the finished article and were also thwarted by good defending from our team.
The stats also showed that, AFCB 5 shots, 2 on target. Wolves 17 shots, 4 on target.
A clean sheet on his @premierleague debut for this man yesterday 👏
— AFC Bournemouth 🍒 (@afcbournemouth) September 1, 2022
Your say…
SlowDownDerek wrote…
I quite enjoyed that, possibly because I’d convinced myself we’d get beat one way or another so the fact they put in a shift and weren’t second best, for the most part, was very pleasing.
I think the point is summed up by Christie, worked tirelessly knocking possession and closing down yet just doesn’t have the quality to create goals.
That formation change was a dreadful decision. Almost cost us the game.
Turkued added…
I think I enjoyed that game as much as any the past two years. Neither team is a threat to qualify for Europe, but the heart was there today. It will take a bit for the fear of Parker’s negativity to cleanse itself from the club, but the effort clearly was there. Dom has been out a bit, I’m expecting big things on Saturday. Give us a healthy Junior and Brooks, OK the first may require divine intervention, and creativity will appear. No, not the finished product but I just booked the train to Nottingham on Saturday and I was going to eat the ticket before the match. As long as we get effort and players who seem to know each other…I’m OK with what comes. Good job by the interim managers and credit to the players for working their asses off tonight.
Red_till_im_ded said…
A game that lacked in quality but was quite enjoyable with edge-of-the-seat moments, especially in the second half. You can see why they have only scored 2 goals as well this season and had they had a decent striker they probably would have won. That said, we were in the game all the way and what we lacked in quality we made for in spirit and effort. The standout performer for me was Lewis Cook with good performances from Christie, and Tavernier.
Solanke looked half a yard short and didn’t read the game at times and Zemura doesn’t look PL level. Both he and Kelly need to improve their passing in dangerous areas.
I think the most important thing tonight was to react to the goings on in the last 5 days and we did that. With a clean sheet to boot
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