Match Report and moM v Newcastle

Neil Dawson

UTC Legend
Prodigal Son ruins homecoming....

Of all the left feet in all the world...it had to fall to that one. Matt Ritchie had done all the right things on his return, clapping most parts of the ground at various points for having his name sang or being given a standing ovation for taking a corner. It was great manners...we were all feeling warm inside...and then...when the ball hung invitingly in the air towards the edge of the area he smote the left foot we used to worship through the ball and it was past his buddy Boruc before you could say ‘shouldn’t the referee have blown for full time’...

It had been a tough game, two sides that won’t feel they showed anywhere near their best with the blustery conditions as mitigating circumstances and a mid-table feel about the whole affair. There was a surprise in the line up with Surman nowhere near the squad and Brooks in central midfield with Ibe turning up on the right.

Bournemouth should have taken the lead early doors when King released Fraser in a standard Bournemouth break and the little winger’s cross shot flicked the foot of the post with Wilson watchingit. Six inches either way and one of the two of them would have scored. This was probably the high point though until the last minute of the half as both sides settled into a lot of misplaced passing and poor decision making. Eddie prowled his line in frustration as time and time again his team picked the wrong option on some simple balls.

There was an edge to the game too with Lerma arguably lucky to stay on the pitch after he cleaned out Perez for his 11th booking of the season. Ibe was having one of his better afternoons and jinked to the byline a couple of times but there was always a toon player in the way as they defended in numbers and resolutely. Eddie switched to 4-3-3 with Fraser dropping centrally as a false nine.

Slowly Bournemouth started building pressure without ever looking like scoring so a corner in the last minute of the half offered a lot of hope. If you want to understand why we concede so many goals watch the goal back. A corner just before half time to us....and Newcastle went in front from it. The ball broke with one player back - Clyne who hesitated fatally and left Ibe in the race with Almeiron. The toons record signing was heading wide with Clyne covering but Ibe got the wrong side and clipped his ankles twice. It was unnecessary and just poor decision making, RONDON who just loves playing against us curled a beautiful dipping free kick into the corner with Boruc diving but not offering an arm.

HT Bournemouth 0 Newcastle 1

The second half saw a resurgent Bournemouth offering more accuracy and movement. Ibe ran at the heart of the defence early on and caused havoc and from the resulting corner Ake looked like he was shoved and after an age Mike Dean pointed to the spot. KING buried it for his 10th of the season.

Bournemouth were nearly in dreamland two minutes later from another corner when Mepham’s towering header missed the far post by millimetres with Dubravka beaten. At the other end Rondon turned Ake and fired a cross shot that Almeiron agonisingly missed at full stretch. The game was starting to warm up...not that the football was getting better, more that tired legs were allowing more space. Lerma should have claimed his first home goal but headed wastefully over from Frasers free kick. He then bent one inches wide from distance.

Newcastle were hanging on at this point and Wilson’s lob was brilliantly cleared off the line, with the home side pretty much leaving four up front. Solanke arrived for the tiring Ibe and was straight in the action with a busy display. His teams second goal owed much to him as he twisted and turned past a few people in the box, keeping his feet well before finding KING who arrived late to smash a beauty across Dubravka into the bottom corner.

Then, standard procedure, we dropped deeper and deeper... Newcastle’s decisive changes were Shelvey who brought control and forward passing and Atsu who caused a bit of panic in our defence. We started to hit it out and regroup. Sometimes it works...sometimes it doesn’t. When you pack your ranks it normally needs something special to break it. RITCHIE provided ‘special’ for us on many occasions and today we felt what many of our old opponents used to. ‘He can’t score from there’.. ‘s***

FT Bournemouth 2 Newcastle 2

Boruc 6 - safe but will feel he should have got to first?

Clyne 5 - a shadow of his old self. Indecisive and poor distribution.
Mepham 8 - outstanding aerially and on ground.
Ake 7 - dragged around a bit by Rondon but stuck to task.
Daniels 6 - decent enough defending but much quieter in attack

Fraser 6 - took a knock that quietened him right down, well tracked.
Brooks 5 - also took knock and not in game much. Bit light for that slot.
Lerma 7 - great fulcrum play and calmness, strong.
Ibe 7 - apart from tripping up a good pacy display.

Wilson 5 - well off his game particularly holding up and touch.
King 9 - pacy, tricky and intelligent all game. Bang on it.

Mom Josh King was on fire...and worked his ass off too.

Verdict.
A very Stereotypical 2018/19 Bournemouth performance. Less possession, dangerous on break, switch off concentration for two goals. A draw was to me a fair result but more because neither side deserved to win rather than neither side deserved to lose...in what was a weather effected low quality stroll between two safe teams.

We lost the grip of midfield with acres of space as it had an odd balance of three wingers and a walking booking machine. Nothing Eddie can do with three key engine room players on the bench but we learnt that Brooks great potential isn’t ready for a central slot yet unless it’s in the 10 role. Credit to Eddie for changing formation to give the extra body there. That changed the game and on another day would have yielded three points

Positives.. Mepham goes from strength to strength and King was back to his best. Ibe was much better and Lerma strong.

Negatives... the main one is we continue for the fourth year in a row to allow stupid goals in. The most loyal of fans will say it’s because we concentrate on attacking but that’s nonsense. Conceding from your own corner...something that is by no means a first for us is just poor, poor planning. We can keep coming on blaming poor concentration but we have to tackle the goals against column by signings rather than shutting up shop - something none of us want. Wilson and Clynes performance also not worthy of their international stature. The former we can forgive but the latter is starting to make me feel glad he is not ours. He hasn’t been the same since the party weekend hit the papers.

So, we inch on.. not a performance to the collective players potential again but... individual performances secured a precious point.
 
It seems that word has got around and Brooks is getting a bit of a kicking. Agree that he is too lightweight for today's role. Needs a bit of building up during the summer ready for next season. Thanks for a good report.
 
Fair comments but didn't think Clyne was that poor. We are really suffering with the injuries in central midfield.
Enjoyed the game in very difficult conditions.
 
I think it was a game we needed Gosling for. We needed someone less lightweight alongside Jeff. Credit to Ibe who I thought had his best game for a long time
 
In his defence Eddie said he got a bad gash on his achilles, so that might help to explain his drop off in the second half
 
Good report Neil and I don't know why Eddie didn't take Brooks off, poor by his normal standards
 
Thought Brooks and Wee man were both on the receiving end of some treatment today - particularly Brooks at the end of the first half, where he was a passenger for the three minutes of time added on.

Neil - if you thought Lerma was lucky not to be sent off, surely Perez should have gone before that for the lunge on Fraser? - reckless and not in control - and left Fraser hobbling for most of the first half.
 
I'm not sure Ibe clipped his ankles. He got in front of him here and then Almeiron went down. I didn't see any ankle clipping

You might be right. I can only see it from angle I saw it and I was kind of behind it. It looked to me like he tried to foul him, the lad stayed on his feet and then he clipped him again. In the Fletch stand it may well have looked differently. MOTD will show all angles.
 

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