#pne v #afcb

My first question for the day - why are all our away trips so far away?

Sat on the coach at 7am I'd already identified the man who had the annoying voice and the one who doesn't rub their hair gel in properly leaving a blue glob on the back of his head. As soon as I'd heard " I've got a breathing condition" countered with " so have I and I only have one lung" I knew that today of all days the pub and football had better be good. (Ps I bet my black cat is blacker than her black cat #competitive)

This was to be my only commentary on the journey - but then it happened. Someone finally bit back at the banana woman.

A yelp of despair went out as the coach pulled in for a second stop less than 10 miles away from Preston. Instead of empathising with the coach she aggressively shouted " the police have said we can't get there before 1" - one guy made a joke and she bellowed at him " say it to my face" - he responded calmly that he just did. It was both cringeworthy and triumphant at the same time.

So to the pub - The Sumners. It was a mixture of both home and away and the banter was lively. What pubs/locals don't enjoy a lot of strangers singing about a team they know nothing about.

Suitably buoyed we went to the stadium.

We'd already heard the team - Painter at left back, Ritchie on the right and 2 up front - surely the dream team.

No

This is my blog now - so I'll say it how I saw it.

From the first whistle to the last - it was absolute shit !!

Preston, with a point to prove to whoever will take over, were clearly up for the game and won every first, second and third ball

They were tenacious - like terriers snapping at your heals they never gave AFCB a second - and as they needed an hour it was always going to be a problem . Where players lacked finesse, they used brute force and absolutely bullied the back 4

Bournemouth (the dream team) on the other hand, played like they had never even met each other and had only just been introduced to the ball

Pass after pass alternated between shin and throat level until we were lucky enough to see the ball just hacked into the stands

Preston scored first on 19 minutes as the ball was moved from left to middle with at least 4 chances for AFCB to clear. They didn't and a shot from the edge of the box beat Jalal to his right.

The second was on 30 minutes when a corner bobbled in the 6 yard box. 5 AFCB players were up to the semi final of the paper-stone-scissors challenge to see whose turn I was to clear it when Preston grew impatient with the advert breaks and popped it in

Pugh then went off ???? and at first we tinkered with 1 up front then went 3-4-3 n a win or bust move

It was bust

I got up at 5 am on my day off and spent nearly £50 to travel 5 1/2 hours on a cramped coach and then sing as loud as I could for 90 minutes

I did my bit

Where were the players??

I don't expect us to win every game but I do expect to not be embarrassed sitting in a stadium

I sat through Crawley, Coventry and Swindon away under Groves and thought I could feel no lower about a performance

Today was poorer than all of these games

Recent wins have all had an element of luck - but they've been on the back of high, quick work-rate, skill and teamwork so I believed that the harder you work the luckier you get

Today, with the exception of MacDonald, the team will be lucky if the coach toilet doesn't overflow and drown the lot of them

One loss doesn't turn a good team into a bad one but I for one hope that Howe is hoarse by the end of the journey and the players have a mild case of tinnitus

Still, top of the league, we're having a laugh .....

Star Man - MacDonald - best of a poor bunch

Addendum - that wasn't the only fun on the coach. All of a sudden there was a huge commotion as someone smashed seven bells out of their portable DVD player

Eloise tried to step in with calming words such as "What the hell do you think you're doing?" To which he replied - the battery had died

The next 20 minutes was spent with Eloise explaining the virtues of just charging the battery again, as well as explaining how he could get his favourite film "bed knobs and broom sticks" onto his phone

It was like teaching a grandmother how to break dance - it was never going to work

Even now I don't believe she's convinced it was no more than a weird joke - with her at the unwitting dupe