As if the previous year had not been surreal enough, surely the only way for reality as we know it to distort even further from the norm would be for a disciplined and free flowing Bournemouth side to go and out-sh*thouse a beleaguered Burnley side on their own turf to comfortably reach the quarter finals of the FA cup? Masterminded by the tactical genius of erm Jonathan Woodgate and spearheaded by a David Silvaesque attacking midfield master class from erm Phil Billing.... this seems to be the world we live in now folks! Forget everything you’ve learnt up until this point I guess.....
Anyway, onto the game. We lined up like the Bournemouth of old, a flat back four with full backs encouraged to bomb forward at every opportunity. Inverted wide men playing very high and looking to pick up pockets in central areas where ever possible. A slightly languid and unpredictable number ten who is capable of both moments of brilliance and utter frustration in equal measure, and a work horse forward who looks to run in behind and stretch the opposition back line at every opportunity. The parallels with the class of 14/15 were not lost.
The game started off as quite a cagey and scrappy affair, to be expected really given the number of changes made by both sides. Once the game settled down it was Bournemouth who begun to take the ascendancy, knocking the ball about crisply and noticeably trying to get the full backs involved at every opportunity. Lerma and Pearson provided a brick wall in front of the back line while Phil Bill floated around gracefully picking up some very positive pockets of space. The forward movement was causing Burnley problems and led to a couple of early half chances. Firstly Stanislas struck well but narrowly wide on the half volley after a Brooks dink to the back post had been cleared, and then Billing went even closer by pulling a shot narrowly wide after a lovely run in behind and cut back from Surridge. Bournemouth were in control and got the goal that their incisive and intricate early dominance had deserved. Big Phil glided past a challenge in midfield and played a very intelligent reverse pass into Stanislas who had drifted infield to pick up a lovely little pocket. Stan spread the play to Brooks, Stacy overlapped, cut back, goal. Clinical. Blink twice and you’d have been forgiven for thinking that prime Franno and Ritchie had both re-signed. So simple, yet so satisfying. We saw out the half comfortably with only a few minor scares and were unlucky not to go in two up after Dale Stephens’ best attempts to first smash a header into his own net, and then wildly swipe a leg out at Billing which looked suspiciously like it could have resulted in a spot kick.
The second half began with the gut wrenching news that Stacy had suffered an injury, hopefully only minor. Mepham on in his place and CCV shifted out to a right back role. Bournemouth were notably sitting deeper this half and inviting pressure onto themselves, fortunately this only really resulted in one presentable opportunity for the hosts. Rodrigues blasting a glaring opportunity wildly over the bar from the edge of the six yard box after a mis-hit shot had made its way to him. A big let off. The rest of the half was a bit of a non event in all honesty. Bournemouth sat back and invited Burnley onto them, but a very diligent and disciplined defensive display (from Pearson and Lerma in particular) meant that it very rarely felt like we were really under any threat. If anything we were the ones who looked the most likely to net again on the counter, and we did just that! Produced by undoubtedly the moment of the match. A clipped ball into the box found a clearly tiring Billing, who quite nonchalantly helped the ball back into the area with his back and onto an on rushing Surridge. Sam nicked in ahead of the Burnley defender and the ref pointed to the spot. A piece of play in which if it pays off leaves you looking like an absolute genius, if it fails has your fans and team mates alike pulling their hair out in frustration! Up stepped Junior to comfortably stroke home the spot kick and send us into the quarter finals for only the first time in our history!
To summarise, football is a simple game. Sometimes just not over complicating things and going back to basics is the way forward. Today we didn’t over elaborate with some expansive formation, we went back to basics. Over lapping full backs, two sh*t-house midfielders protecting the back four, inverted wingers and a forward who looks to stretch the opposition’s back line. It payed off big time, fair play to Woodgate for recognising this. It is a performance that was both pleasing and at the same time sums up why so many supporters were becoming so frustrated by recent performances, the ingredients are clearly there to do well and it really only took us going back to basics to achieve this. It was admittedly against a weakened Burnley team but even the most pessimistic among us can’t deny that for the first time in a long time there were glimpses of the Bournemouth of old in there.
player ratings to follow!
Anyway, onto the game. We lined up like the Bournemouth of old, a flat back four with full backs encouraged to bomb forward at every opportunity. Inverted wide men playing very high and looking to pick up pockets in central areas where ever possible. A slightly languid and unpredictable number ten who is capable of both moments of brilliance and utter frustration in equal measure, and a work horse forward who looks to run in behind and stretch the opposition back line at every opportunity. The parallels with the class of 14/15 were not lost.
The game started off as quite a cagey and scrappy affair, to be expected really given the number of changes made by both sides. Once the game settled down it was Bournemouth who begun to take the ascendancy, knocking the ball about crisply and noticeably trying to get the full backs involved at every opportunity. Lerma and Pearson provided a brick wall in front of the back line while Phil Bill floated around gracefully picking up some very positive pockets of space. The forward movement was causing Burnley problems and led to a couple of early half chances. Firstly Stanislas struck well but narrowly wide on the half volley after a Brooks dink to the back post had been cleared, and then Billing went even closer by pulling a shot narrowly wide after a lovely run in behind and cut back from Surridge. Bournemouth were in control and got the goal that their incisive and intricate early dominance had deserved. Big Phil glided past a challenge in midfield and played a very intelligent reverse pass into Stanislas who had drifted infield to pick up a lovely little pocket. Stan spread the play to Brooks, Stacy overlapped, cut back, goal. Clinical. Blink twice and you’d have been forgiven for thinking that prime Franno and Ritchie had both re-signed. So simple, yet so satisfying. We saw out the half comfortably with only a few minor scares and were unlucky not to go in two up after Dale Stephens’ best attempts to first smash a header into his own net, and then wildly swipe a leg out at Billing which looked suspiciously like it could have resulted in a spot kick.
The second half began with the gut wrenching news that Stacy had suffered an injury, hopefully only minor. Mepham on in his place and CCV shifted out to a right back role. Bournemouth were notably sitting deeper this half and inviting pressure onto themselves, fortunately this only really resulted in one presentable opportunity for the hosts. Rodrigues blasting a glaring opportunity wildly over the bar from the edge of the six yard box after a mis-hit shot had made its way to him. A big let off. The rest of the half was a bit of a non event in all honesty. Bournemouth sat back and invited Burnley onto them, but a very diligent and disciplined defensive display (from Pearson and Lerma in particular) meant that it very rarely felt like we were really under any threat. If anything we were the ones who looked the most likely to net again on the counter, and we did just that! Produced by undoubtedly the moment of the match. A clipped ball into the box found a clearly tiring Billing, who quite nonchalantly helped the ball back into the area with his back and onto an on rushing Surridge. Sam nicked in ahead of the Burnley defender and the ref pointed to the spot. A piece of play in which if it pays off leaves you looking like an absolute genius, if it fails has your fans and team mates alike pulling their hair out in frustration! Up stepped Junior to comfortably stroke home the spot kick and send us into the quarter finals for only the first time in our history!
To summarise, football is a simple game. Sometimes just not over complicating things and going back to basics is the way forward. Today we didn’t over elaborate with some expansive formation, we went back to basics. Over lapping full backs, two sh*t-house midfielders protecting the back four, inverted wingers and a forward who looks to stretch the opposition’s back line. It payed off big time, fair play to Woodgate for recognising this. It is a performance that was both pleasing and at the same time sums up why so many supporters were becoming so frustrated by recent performances, the ingredients are clearly there to do well and it really only took us going back to basics to achieve this. It was admittedly against a weakened Burnley team but even the most pessimistic among us can’t deny that for the first time in a long time there were glimpses of the Bournemouth of old in there.
player ratings to follow!
