There's a phrase that goes along the lines of "after the Lord Mayor's show" which means after such splendour, you have people following behind cleaning up the horseshit
As such, after the Liverpool game, if I'd had a shovel watching tonight, my roses would be blossoming beautifully
Howe had decided to give Huddersfield the perfect spying DVD by naming the same team / formation as played in front of the nation on Saturday
The worse news though was that the heavens had started to open and the pitch, especially by the dugouts, looked like Tom Daley would have felt more at home than a 'baller
The game started and Grabban quickly showed how important he was going to be to the team by chasing down lost causes and harrying their defence
In the first 5 minutes he caused enough panic to gain Bournemouth 2 corners and a throw in and it was the second corner that gave the home side their first sniff of goal
An excellent delivery from Ritchie caused mayhem in the middle of the box and Smithles was forced into a brilliant point blank save from close in and as the ball ricocheted out to Arter he crashed the ball at goal only for the keeper to pull off an even better save
Already more shots on goal than we had on Saturday ....:-)
Huddersfield were not here just to make up the numbers though and as early as the 7th minute they showed how dangerous they were by swiftly breaking down the right and as Ward met the cross with a glancing header we were all expecting the net to billow, only to see the ball just go wide
Phew
On 13 minutes Daniels was forced off with injury, replaced by Harte which was bad news for Pugh - he was really going to have to step up without his pacey partner
Bournemouth were still on the front foot and on 18 minutes they almost put converted that pressure into a goal
Another Grabban earned corner was well punched out high into the air. As the ball dropped, Ritchie ran in, controlled and moved the ball to the left in one move then absolutely smashed the ball into the right corner and somehow the keeper tipped it round the post. Bravo I say, through gritted teeth
In the past I have criticised the fitness trainer, but today I feel I should mention the nutritionist
The guy is just not doing his job. How could he send the team out so dehydrated? Surely that is the only reason why the whole team was seemingly mesmerised by the swimming pool "oasis" by the dugouts?
After all, if we want to play the ball on the ground the last thing you would head towards is quicksand so apart from being thirsty, why the bloody hell did we keep going over there?
For me it was just a real headloss moment and it affected their whole game for rest of the half.
If they weren't trying to run through the quagmire they were trying to thread passes through the eye of a needle
We are guilty of this when conditions are good so to do it when conditions are appalling just boggles the mind
Poor choices made / passing even had the team fighting amongst themselves as Ritchie gave Elphick a rocket for giving him a hospital pass right at the back - this didn't bode well and despite a low Francis shot towards the end of the half it was yet another tale of final third worries
Half Time 0-0
The first minute of the second half saw Grabban's excellent run finally matched with a decent ball and he was through on the right. Cutting back he crossed the ball to the far post and Pugh chested it down and volleyed the ball.......just wide of the right post - bugger
Unbelievably after spending all their time in the first half on the right, they spent the second on the left to obviously work on their backstrokes
On 53 minutes, though, they finally broke free of the swamp and Pugh was put through on the left. As he ran into the box Smith put his arm round him and down he went
It wasn't the biggest of contacts and if it had happened walking down the road you'd be disappointed if it caused you to fall over - but rules are rules - penalty
Howe and Tindall again sat on Pitman which have Grabban the time to coolly slot the ball to the left as the keeper dived right 1-0
Five minutes later and euphoria turned to despair
Francis, more and more isolated on the right as Ritchie kept coming infield and not covering back found himself with 2 attackers bearing down on him
Try as he might a swift 1-2 had Woods fly past him and smash the ball past Camp. One sight at goal, one shot, one goal 1-1
The game should then have come to life but instead went into its shell. More tippy tappy play from Bournemouth before the inevitable missed pass was frustrating both players and fans alike
Rantie came on for Surman with 22 minutes left on the clock and no-one could have expected him to make the impact he did
Just 3 minutes after he came on O'Kane picked up the ball and ran at the defence. As the defenders backed away 7500 fans shouted "Shoot for fu@#s sake" as he passed the ball
Just as I thought the vein in my forehead was going to burst I realised that the ball had actually gone to a Bournemouth player, and that player was Rantie
On he ran and scuffed the ball to the keeper's right. We all watched in disbelief as the ball slowly rolled in slow motion towards the post.
As the post was struck and the ball rebounded into the goal the shriek of relief Rantie gave could only be heard by wolves, but the noise the crowd made had the whole of Poole looking up startled
He'd finally scored 2-1
The remaining 19 minutes were a dull affair of not much happening (apart from some very dubious Francis decision making ) which was turned on its head in the inexplicably long 5 minutes of injury time
First of all a long ball from the right saw Ward on the 6 yard box only to put the bouncing ball wide.
Then in the last minute Rantie rushed through one on one and having beaten the keeper he just needed to roll it in. Unfortunately he'd been rooming with Pugh so in fact he doubled back, beat him again, beat a defender, beat the keeper again then air shot as the goal gaped
I hope that didn't undo the good work of the goal beforehand.....
Final Score : 2-1
Summary : We have played much better than this and got nothing - so on the whole the feeling I have is that of gratitude
Still way too many poor final balls or passes in general but conditions did very much play a part in that
It was game where I really couldn't see where a goal was coming from as Grabban was isolated far too often and it was only when the formation was changed and he had support up front that we finally scored at home from open play
Star Man - A panel decision (thanks Steve) - the groundsmen - gave a 110℅ and never let conditions get the better of them
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