Bournemouth suffered another defeat at the league 1’s bottom club with a very poor performance.
They lined up 4-4-2, no Cook with Francis partnering Zubar, Purches at right back, Pugh on the left, McDermott on the right and Arter and MacDonald in centre midfield.
They kicked into a biting wind and a low sun. The first 10 mins or so were uneventful apart from a save from Flahavan with neither side in the ascendency.
Then disaster struck, a pass was laid back to Purches but appeared to get stuck in the pitch and then became a 50:50 ball, the honest tackles from both players resulted in a spread eagled Purches waving his arm frantically and several players going straight to him. The ref stopped play to boos from the Dale supporters and a bad leg injury was confirmed when a leg brace was brought on.
Strugnell replaced Purches who played centre back and Francis resumed his normal right back position.
This affected the AFCB players who failed to pick up the pace and a period of domination from Dale ensued.
Their midfield players in particular were willing to shoot from range aided by the stiff wind but their shots were either wide or saved by Flahavan.
McDermott did manage to cut in from the right and shot a 20 yard left footer straight at the keeper. A Thomas shot was saved and a header went over the bar, other than that it was all Dale.
My thoughts were that with the wind in the 2nd half B’mth should be able to dominate. But that was not how it panned out.
The 2nd half saw B’mth more in the game but did not take advantage of the wind in their favour.
A ball down the right was pulled back by Thomas and Tubbs fluffed his shot wide.
Zubar nearly connected with a free kick at the far post with the goal gaping.
Their goalie did not have to make a save in 2nd half.
Bradders brought on Fletch and Malone on 85 mins then the disaster. Arter pushed their player who fell dramatically, the ref pointed to the spot and the penalty was well despatched.
This was one of the worst games I have seen. Both teams struggling. In particular B’mth could not feed the forward duo to feet from the midfield. Too many times it was chipped to one forward from Daniels or Francis and lost.
Flahavan – 7 Capable performance
Francis – 6 Defended well
Zubar – 7 Defended v well MOM
Strugnell – 5 Inexperience showed
Daniels – 6 Defended well
Pugh – 6 Struggled to get past full back
McDermott – 5 Has not captured last season’s form
Arter – 5 Gave ball away too often
MacDonald – 5 Unable to command
Thomas – 6 Willing but largely ineffective
Tubbs – 4 Ineffective
Bradders – 4 Still to work out a front 6 formation and tactics and brought on Fletch and Malone far too late.
Report by Bmthtillidie
AFC Bournemouth manager Lee Bradbury told afcb.co.uk…
‘…We had some good chances with Tubbs going close, Charlie Daniels had a good effort, we had the free kick that we have been working on with Stephane Zubar just not quite reaching it firmly enough, so we had opportunities and there were fine margins. We rolled our sleeves up for periods of the game, but not for 90 minutes.
‘We still believe we can make the top six, but to do that, we have to win games and be more ruthless. We have to be going to places like Chesterfield and Rochdale and getting results. The pressure could be off in some way because the teams we are playing will expect to get results against us, so hopefully we can spin round that pressure of recent weeks…’
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