I wasn`t quite sure what to expect from this game – would Rovers be determined to ‘put right` their defeat by arch rivals Burnley at the weekend, or would we continue our run of fine form? Well, I`m delighted to say it turned out to be the latter, as Bournemouth were well worth the 3pts from a match I suspect most of us would`ve been happy to draw beforehand. The key to it was the formation, for me – Eddie set us up to play the familiar 4-5-1, and, once the game settled down, this basically trumped Blackburn`s 4-4-2 and left us largely in control. We still needed to battle, though, and won it via a combination of a great strike from Grabban and some superb defending when they bombed us a bit near the end.
The supporter`s coach left at 1200 and it was a fairly clear run up – apart from the obligatory slow down on the M6 near Manchester – and we arrived about 2 hours before kick-off. I`d heard that the traditional pre-match pub, The Fenhurst – had recently become a Hungry Horse and was now home fans only, but I`d arranged to meet friends there, so went in anyway. Sure enough, we were asked to cover up colours, but to be honest, it was pretty clear there were plenty of Cherries fans in there, and there was no hassle at all.
We subsequently walked over the road to the ground and had a gas-filled, overpriced bottle of Fosters before taking our seats behind the goal, which provided an excellent view. As I said, Eddie reverted to a 4-5-1 formation, with Grabban up front, Frazer wide left, Ritchie wide right and Arter (in for Pitman) O`Kane and Surman in the middle, with Harte, Cook, Elphick and Francis across the back and Camp in goal.
Blackburn actually had us pegged into our own half for the first 5 mins or so, but, in a pattern that was to be repeated throughout the game, their on-target goal attempts were either easily saved by Camp or well blocked by our players putting their bodies on the line.
Our first chance came on 5 mins, when Grabbs burst clear on the left, but shot straight at the keeper from the corner of the box. The next thing I noticed was some mysterious flashing of lights by Blackburn fans – anyone else see this? After about 10 mins quite a few of them all around the ground started flashing their mobile cameras or something for about a minute – not sure why?
Meanwhile, on the pitch Ritchie was starting to cut in shoot at will (he obviously has carte blanche to do this) and I counted at least three attempts from about 20 yards, a couple of which went really close.
By this stage I felt we were gradually taking control of the game and were unlucky not to score just before the break, when, in quicksuccession, Ritchie had a shot tipped round the post, Cook had a freeheader from the resultant corner and hit the base of the post, and, following a neat corner routine, Francis produced a thunderous shot from the edge of the box, which was again just tipped behind by Paul Robinson (Blackburn`s best player on the night).
So, it was 0-0 at half time, and so far so good. During the break I couldn`t face another fizzy Fosters and decided to try the red wine they had on sale, which turned out to be surprisingly good. I know the square root of jack about wine, but this was a Canadian merlot, for anyone interested in that sort of thing?
The game resumed with another couple of Blackburn half chances, but they never really bothered Camp at all, and, as the half went on I thought it became a much more open affair, which suited us just fine as we started to get our fluid passing and movement going.
The next incident of note was the denial of a cast-iron penalty for us on 59 mins, when Richie was upended by Spurr in the box and I have no idea why the ref didn`t give it. It was one of those ‘it`s free kick anywhere else on the pitch` incidents. Spurr, incidentally, was bombing our penalty area with long throws throughout the match, and whilst I think there was one that caused a bit of confusion, by and large theywere all dealt with very well by our defence. And whilst I`m on the subject of Blackburn`s players, I thought the highly dangerous Rhodes wasn`t quite as sharp as I`d been expecting – or maybe we just dealt with him very well.
On the hour Blackburn brought on Liam Feeney and David Dunn, and I`m pleased to say this didn`t actually change things that much. Feeney looks a shadow of the player he was when we sold him and I didn`t really notice he was on the pitch.
Then, on 67 mins we took a much-deserved lead when Grabban scored a goal out of virtually nothing. He picked up the ball about 25 yards out, kind of swivelled a bit and beat the surprised Robinson on his near post with a low drive – cue rapture from the 213 travelling Cherries fans, particularly as the goal went in right in front of us.
In fact, we very nearly scored two in two minutes as Cook had a powerful shot tipped just wide soon after the restart, but it then became a case (for me, at least) of nervously checking my watch every few minutes and praying the remaining time would pass quickly. We`d basically done more than enough to win the game and it would`ve been a cruel blow if we`d got pegged back late on.
Inevitably, Blackburn came at us and we had to withstand a sustained period of pressure on about the 75-80min mark, when they had a succession of corners (about 4 or 5), plus another of those long throws. They launched it at us, basically, but the defence was resolute – every one of the back four was magnificent throughout – and, once this flurry of corners had passed, we saw out the game with relative ease.
All in all, it was another excellent performance and a great team effort a long way from home – and by ‘team` I don`t just mean the players but the management and travelling supporters as well. I don`t know what it sounded like on the radio, but I think we out-sung them. The bus home made good time and we got back to Dean Court at 3am, after another hugely enjoyable awayday. I`m pretty exhausted, but it was well worth it, our league position looks good & I can`t wait for Saturday! Dare we dream of a fourth consecutive victory against Middlesbrough and kicking on further from there? I don`t see why not.
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