Players praise Cherries support

Both Tommy Elphick and Harry Arter have come out and spoken of the positive impact the AFCB supporters provided in their return to the second tier this season.

Elphick spoke to the All Departments Podcast, and said:

‘I love the atmosphere, playing in the big grounds and hearing my name sung. I love all that. I think it`s good to have a connection with the fans and get them on side. Towards the end of the season Dean Court was full. It made a real difference to our performances and gave us that spark we needed to start games fast. It`s a good opportunity to spur on the fans and get them on board.’

Meanwhile, Arter has also sung The Cherries faithful praises, particularly after a difficult start to the campaign. He told the Daily Echo:

‘Overall, we did really well, especially having suffered heavy defeats against Huddersfield, Watford and, to an extent, QPR… To get beaten like we did at those places and to return the favour later in the season was a nice feeling and a lot of lads, without realising it, took a lot of confidence from those games… The supporters deserve a lot of credit for sticking with it whether the result was positive or negative. Without them on our side, our job would have been much harder. We went to big teams last year like Birmingham where the crowd turned pretty quickly and you could see what a negative effect that had on their players. I would like to thank the fans for their positivity and for sticking by every player, they are always supportive and hopefully we can achieve even more for them next season.’