Match Report and MOM v Forest Green

Neil Dawson

UTC Legend
Travers-sty For Brave Rovers

Bournemouth edged into the third round of the Carabao Cup on penalties against dogged Forest Green Rovers who rode their luck but will be gutted tonight. Keeper Mark Travers is starting to develop a real reputation for the spectacular - following up his debut heroics against Spurs with a clean sheet of penalty saves tonight. He is the story that might survive on a night that will be soon forgotten.

As per the norm Eddie rang the changes tonight although there was the surprise that the two Wilsons started. Harry less of a surprise as he eases into the team and one can assume Callum wanted goals and sadly still does. The other survivor from Saturday was Mepham who slotted into a more familiar back four. It was good to see Gavin Kilkenny start in the centre of midfield too.

The game started and proceeded with a familiar pattern, much Bournemouth possession but poor decision making or final balls making life easy for a determined Rover's defence. Callum Wilson was in the thick of things early and volleyed into the side netting from a tight angle. His namesake Harry then took over with a wriggle through and a toe poke that was brilliant saved by the feet of Wollacott.

Ibe was seeing a lot of the ball but not quite gelling with Rico with many runs and stops and then the ball being recycled - mainly to Kilkenny who looked very slick and comfortable on his professional debut. The chances were just not happening though - despite some great crosses flashing across the goal from Stacey and Harry which Solanke and Wilson both hung back for when one should have gambled. The closest shot came from the unlikely source of Surman who rolled back the years with a twinkle toes run and thudding drive just past the post. Ibe then wriggled through but was again denied by Wollacotts leg.

The half drew to a close with Bournemouth upping the ante a bit with a horror minute for Solanke who completely misjudged Ibe's cross when it looked easier to score then blocked Harry Wilson's goal-bound shot when the ball came back in.

HT Bournemouth 0 Forest Green Rovers 0

The second half was much of the same - lots of pretty football with no killer ball or a killer ball coming in and Solanke and Wilson not near it. It became quite dull with Forest Green's attempts to get out of their half completely denied by the dominant Mepham and Simpson. Stacey and Rico were also class defensively so it always looked like a shut out - the question was could we finally score.

That question was clearly troubling Eddie who removed the Wilsons for Weeman and Josh. This certainly upped the pace side of things and for a spell Rovers were rocking. Once again though it was the outstretched boot of Wollacott that denied King when Fraser's delicious pass found him free - the best save of the night (until Travers took over after the game). King was denied again by a more routine save with the hands and time started to run out.

With Bournemouth so far up the pitch breaks were likely and two came, presenting Rovers with their chance to win it - something that would undoubtedly have followed if either had gone in. First Mondial fired over then Surman blocked on the line from Stevens. Eddie looked livid - and on came Billing for the tiring Kilkenny.

The final push must have had Rover's fans in pieces, particularly when Stacey was released out wide and clean through - his shot smacked back off the foot of the post though and despite a lot of (woeful) set pieces night was penalty bound.

Cometh the hour, cometh the man - Travers at full stretch to deny Mills, Dawson and Morton. King, Solanke and Billing finding the net with their penalties while Ibe was the sole home player to see his effort saved.

FT Bournemouth 0 FGR 0 (Bournemouth win 3-0 on penalties).

Travers 8 - Followed up his excellent debut with another heroic showing.

Stacey 7 - Good attacking presence and strong defending. Nice reminder to Ed.
Simpson 7 - Resolute and calm as he normally is against this level
Mepham 8 - Best outfield player for me - so dominant and good with feet.
Rico 6 - Good defensively but some poor choices/delivery with ball.

Ibe 5 - Lots of the ball but wasteful, slowed the game down with the odd great run chucked in.
Surman 6 - Does what he does in his normal calm way
Kilkenny 7 - Excellent control of the ball, first time passing and movement but tired late on.
H.Wilson 6 - Good vision and movement without ever dominating.

C.Wilson 5 - Still misfiring and hold up play/linking is not up to last years level
Solanke 5 - Expected much more tonight - power, runs, shots but no. Improved last 30.

MOM - It was Mepham until the shoot out. Can't see how it can go to anyone bar Travers though, quiet game though he had prior.

Verdict
We know these performances are disjointed. The stands are full of cup people wondering who was in goal and where Lys Mousset is. The queues are horrific and we pitch a whole new team against an established one. It's hardly the magic of the cup at this stage and if anything the performance tonight was better than I have seen in other cup ties, the players looking less like complete strangers and more like a reserve side - which is an improvement of sorts!

The worry will be, as ever in these games, that some people looked well above the level and others didn't - but should. Callum has not hit form yet and he is a key player for us so needs to. Jordan Ibe is now relegated pretty much full time to these fixtures for a starting appearance but still stops rather than takes people on directly with his pace. I am also worried about Solanke who I can just never imagine scoring or work out what sort of forward he actually is. He should have murdered those centre halfs but didn't and spent too much time falling over. He did take his penalty very calmly though and hopefully that will help.

In 360 minutes of football we have scored one goal from open play - and that was a goal where one opponent passed to us and another deflected it in. This is very un-Bournemouth like and although we were unlucky on a few occasions tonight we didn't move and create like we have in seasons gone by. We need to get this sorted as we normally need to score two to win or draw any match.

The positives were how dominant the defence was, the sureity and elegant movement of Kilkenny who looks like a proper player in waiting and the confidence boost young Mark Travers will recieve - it was no wonder who all the players and staff ran to tonight. Burton Albion and a trip down memory lane for a lot of fans awaits in round 3.
 
Neil, I’m confused

You said the performance was better than in other recent cup ties.

Al said the performance was disgusting.

Who should I believe?
 
We could technically both be right!!

It should have been a lot better but I thought we looked more like a team playing Bournemouth football (with no end product).

Loving Sean Dyche comments after their game. ‘Some of the players wonder why they don’t get picked in the league well after tonight they now know’. He irritates me normally but that made me smile
 
I could not find any coverage of the game so settled for updates on BBC Five Live. So it is nice to read a report that sounds like we did ok. Well when I say ok, I mean compared to previous seasons efforts with the second 11, and not necessarily ok against this opposition
 
Too generous Neil. We were ponderous, moving the ball far too slowly, with Surman particularly guilty of holding and retreating when a quick pass was needed. Ibe ran into umpteen dead ends. Until Fraser and King came on, no one showed urgency - worrying.

Positives - Travers, Kilkenny and Mepham. Stacey OK but slow to get forward. The rest - hmmm....

Also, good attendance, with many kids taking the chance for a ticket. That’s promising and - if anyone on the Board takes an interest - further evidence that, with capacity, we could pull many more fans.
 
The lack of end product in recent games is a real concern and whilst on paper we have the talent to rectify this, Eddie must be looking at attacking formations to unlock stubborn defences. In my time watching our team we have usually attacked down the wings at pace and crossed into the goal area for the strikers to attack the goal. We aren’t always successful going forward through the middle, unless we have had Wiltshire/Arter combinations in midfield. Obviously being without Brooksy and Lewis we have lost that creativity, but when they come back we will be ok.
 
cup report. pre-match entertainment is watching plastics getting stuck in the ticket kiosks. watching the cup crowd sauntering in upto 15 mins late, making whole rows grumpily get up. once sat down for 5 mins, then deciding to get up again to purchase more terrible food, or expel previous purchases out of one orifice or another. watching kids eat hotdogs made of brains, bigger than their brains. seems to be many more women than usual. at one point in the first half, 97% of the north stand were either pissing, fidgeting or on their phones, or doing all three. second half - when we had ibe, rico & solanke forming our left-side, I was losing the will to live. a great evening was had by all.
 
A year ago when the turnstiles came in everyone was about how they were impossible to use, bloody stupid idea, we hate change, all that crap. Now a year later that everyone has had at least 20 practise goes at it it's time to have a pop at the first timers who have never used a turnstile anywhere before

edit: Not much point in building that 35k stadium if 28k of them are just going to get abused
 
We have become a team that plays on the break, deliberately I think as it was a very noticeable change.

That makes it hard when we have all the ball as we don’t have clever players we have speed merchants. That’s why we looked more dangerous against Villa and occasionally Man City than we did at home to Sheff U and FGR. It should have been the other way round.

When we were a footballing overload side (like the championship and early perm days) we were perfectly set up for days like today but not so much for games where we didn’t have the ball.

Who’d be a top flight manager!
 
Excellent and fair report, thanks Neil. Positives for me: Kilkenny, what a gem of a player he is, strong, compact, rarely makes a mistake, reminds me of a young Wilshere; Mepham has morphed into Steve Cook - his best game in a Cherries shirt, mopped everything up, commanding in a sweeper-style role: Travers, looks the part, good with ball at feet, faultless with the pens; Wee Man looked busy when he came on, injected the pace that was lacking, ditto Josh; Stacey did ok, hit the post (I think) with one effort. Lastly, great to see lots of new faces in the crowd, mums and dads with sons and daughters, plenty of first timers taking selfies. Great that so many want to come and watch. It ain’t easy getting a ticket for PL games, you’ve got to graft to get points on the board (I’ve been there) - the cups are an excellent way to start. We’re seeing new fans coming on board, that can only be a good thing. A lot of the young ones there last night would have been babes in arms when we got promoted to the prem, let’s hope we can keep them coming!
 
'we play from the back, and play at the the back'

Maybe that's the song now. Time was we would have started at 100mph in a game like tonight. As Neil says, that's not us now. Play is cautious to the extent that players seem so reluctant to shoot.

It is the inability to vary the pace that makes us so predictable.

Thank goodness there was no extra time.
 
Oh, and the queues. still no strategy for such games. Inexcusable.

This is a business that knows what happens at games like last night. The queues spent a lot of time not moving. Liz Finney was in and out of turnstiles telling people how to do it. That is good but couldn't stewards be briefed to do this? One steward was just saying 'this one's stuck again' and Liz would go and sort it out.

It is also possible to check the tickets with hand held devices. Use these and let people in the exit doors.

As I said, inexcusable.
 
I just don't understand, and am quite worried by, how Cal Wilson and Dom Solanke looked so toothless last night. That partnership is one I've been hopeful about, and I expected them to link up and really do some damage. Instead they played nowhere near each other for most of the night, neither of them got into the box much, neither were near any crosses, neither got shots away when openings did present themselves, and neither got to grips or battled with FGR's centre backs. it was pretty sluggish from the pair of them.
 
I guess the biggest question from last night was who would play LB this weekend - Rico or A Smith, with Stacey going in at RB in the latter case.

In the head-to-head between them, it sounds like Rico didn't show much but Stacey was decent. However, did he do enough to warrant us moving A Smith over to the left? Or do you think the safer bet is still to stick with A Smith and Rico in their natural positions?
 
I guess the biggest question from last night was who would play LB this weekend - Rico or A Smith, with Stacey going in at RB in the latter case.

In the head-to-head between them, it sounds like Rico didn't show much but Stacey was decent. However, did he do enough to warrant us moving A Smith over to the left? Or do you think the safer bet is still to stick with A Smith and Rico in their natural positions?

It didn’t answer the question at all from me and my gut feel is Eddie might stick with Fraser at wing back and a back five. Which would be a shame we as it blunts us imo.

If it is a back four I think it’s 50/50 who plays.
 
I just don't understand, and am quite worried by, how Cal Wilson and Dom Solanke looked so toothless last night. That partnership is one I've been hopeful about, and I expected them to link up and really do some damage. Instead they played nowhere near each other for most of the night, neither of them got into the box much, neither were near any crosses, neither got shots away when openings did present themselves, and neither got to grips or battled with FGR's centre backs. it was pretty sluggish from the pair of them.

We also kept playing the ball into feet in the centre which seems to be a new thing this year and we know Callum is not this sort of player. We hoped Solanke might be but every time he got it he looked like Bambi on ice.
 
I guess the biggest question from last night was who would play LB this weekend - Rico or A Smith, with Stacey going in at RB in the latter case.

In the head-to-head between them, it sounds like Rico didn't show much but Stacey was decent. However, did he do enough to warrant us moving A Smith over to the left? Or do you think the safer bet is still to stick with A Smith and Rico in their natural positions?

I thought Rico was OK last night - better in the 2nd half when Ibe switched to the other side, and more so when Wee man came on.
 

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