But not today – huge nets were behind the goal to protect the long suffering early entrants. It made me think, bit by bit, we are on the up, then as I moved to my seat thought nah, we’re always shit at shooting –this will stop the injury lawyers from getting their share of Max’s millions
At the risk of sounding like Bradbury, for the first 4
minutes, I thought we were very good. The irony. Henderson was quick
distributing the ball and Arter snapped into a couple of early challenges and
we moved the ball quickly.
Then, on 5 minutes, a long hoof from Millwall was headed
straight up in the air, putting AFCB under pressure as it was picked up high in
midfield. The ball was quickly slipped through on the left to Waghorn who
coolly slotted it past Henderson.
Bugger – still – I’d rather concede early than late.
The crowd, who were excellent before the goal, took it up a
notch. Why we are not this loud every game I have no idea but today the
atmosphere was excellent, despite Millwall selling out and producing their own
fair share of noise.
When I read the line up and saw Arter was in midfield, I
thought Howe, master of misdirection, had done a Paul Daniels and pulled a
rabbit out of the hat. He was back and raring to go without the press getting a
sniff of it.
I was right, but only partially. Raring he was , ready he
wasn’t. His injury clearly had reduced his fitness by 50% and his early dashing
around quickly had him blowing out of his ar$e.
It was while he was taking his oxygen that the ball came to
him. When fitness goes, you lose that time on the ball and with that, control.
Instead of passing back to any of the waiting defence, he
passed to the opposition who (again) cleverly passed though to Trotter who
finished exquisitely by chipping over Henderson.
This is the difference between League 1 and the Championship.
In league 1 you can have a bad half and still win – here, we have a bad 5
minutes and we’re 0-2 down.
To balance the books on Arter, after that howler he started
to pace himself better by not running at 100 miles an hour and gradually,
through him and Collison in the middle and the running of Fraser, Rantie and
Grabban, Bournemouth started to get back into the game.
The defence still made my sphincter constrict every time we
were attacked, but we WERE getting through both on the left and right (especially
once Fraser and Pugh had swapped sides) but there was one big problem.
Actually, there were 2 small problems, our attackers.
Either they were so far off the pace they never made it into
the box in time, or they made it there in time only for the ball to sail over
their heads. We have 2 of the best wingers in the league but if there’s no-one
in the middle, what’s the point? Foreplay without the finish – very frustrating
Fraser, young lad that he is, must have been feeling it more
than most and so he took it into his own hands, so to speak….
On 43 minutes, fed up of crossing the ball to the Marie Céleste,
he cut in from the left and curled his right foot shot into the bottom left
corner of the goal. A fantastic goal and so well deserved on his first half
performance
Half Time 1-2 : we were back in the game.
At half time Rich, disappointed last week after I’d
forgotten his half time words of wisdom, again offered his Solomon like appraisal
– “lacking height up front”. Difficult to argue – I’d like the stats of how many
crosses we make to no-one.
On the plus side, in Grabban and Rantie, we have very fast,
willing runners and any ball over the top gives us half a chance. If I was to
be at all critical, I’d say that they are still not working as an attacking “unit”.
It’s all very well just turning and running, but they tended
to work in unison, whereas when you watched Blackburn, their attackers worked
together to pull the defence apart and offer themselves up to passes from the
back. That, though, I believe will come as they develop the kind of working
relationship I think could shake this league up
The second half started with AFCB at full throttle as both Collison
and Rantie went close in the opening minutes, with Rantie’s chance going behind
for a corner.
Harte trotted over and I must admit I thought there was more
chance of Tindall turning up to a game white as a sheet than us getting
anything from it but I was proved so happily wrong.
Harte fired it in and Cook rose, unchallenged, to powerfully
head the ball in off the cross bar. It was only bloody 2-2 . “Two nil and you
F***ed it up” rang round the stadium. Not yet, I thought – that’s just the type
of thing to bite us on the ar$e
I needn’t have worried. 3 minutes later, Harte himself saw
his left sided free kick crash against the bar with the keeper stranded. This
was cleared but it was only delaying the inevitable.
An attack on the right saw the ball bounce out to Arter on
the edge of the box, who hit it on the volley, curling it into the far left
corner, giving the keeper no chance. The place erupted and the noise was
deafening – what a come- back.
Today Arter was AFCB’s Le Tiss – a luxury player for most of
the game (as he was at 75% at best) but when it mattered, he shone
Three short minutes later, yes, we are still at 57 minutes,
a long AFCB throw in from the right (it was bloody long too ) caused confusion
in the Millwall box and Dunne seemed to handle the ball. In fairness, it might
have been another offence but as I’d not brought my binoculars and all of the
action was at the other end, it was tricky to see.
A second yellow was produced and he was off and a penalty
given. How many red cards and penalties have there been in AFCB games this
season??? It seems unbelievable.
Grabban stepped up and slotted it into the bottom right
corner.
If I was in my early 20’s and had gotten the dog’s abuse the
whole game, then scored against my former team, maybe I too would have run to
the Millwall fans to celebrate.
Not his proudest moment, I’m sure, but as I say, we were all
young and stupid once….
The fans’ reaction too, was, to a certain extent, expected.
The rush to the front to shout some more was easily handled by the police /
stewards. The throwing of objects, one of which caught Cook on the head, can
not be so easily dismissed.
Before the game I was more worried about aging AFCB fans
wanting to “relive their youth” so I am, like I believe 99% of their fans,
disappointed by the 1% who let their club down
I did, however, enjoy, AFCB fans repeating the Millwall song
of “Grabban, Grabban what’s the score” – I think he was more than aware that
from 0-2 down, it was now 4-2
The game then petered out as a contest, as AFCB slowed the
game down and played keep ball.
There was time for 2 other points of interest. The first
came on 87 minutes as Pitman, on a minute earlier for the absolutely knackered
Arter, decided to show that he really wanted to be in the starting line-up.
Having lost the ball, he sprinted, and I mean sprinted, full
pelt to get the ball back. I have NEVER seen him run so fast. Sure, most of the
stewards would still have beaten him but it was still a statement of intent. I
haven’t laughed so much in ages
The second was in the 90th minute as Fraser ran
into the box and chipped the ball over the defender’s tired lunge. Having missed
the ball, he thought “Sod it, I’m going to connect with something” and he just
followed through and took Fraser out.
Now if I was being generous, I’d say that Grabban wasn’t
given the ball because of crowd worries, but big cynic that I am, there was no
WAY Pitman wasn’t going to take it – it wouldn’t have mattered who he’d have
had to punch, that ball was his.
Justifying that decision, Pitman sent the keeper the wrong
way and put it into the empty right hand side of the goal
Full Time 5-2
Summary – A very ordinary first half where we made an
average side look good. The second half showed glimpses of what talent the
players have and what could be achieved. At the moment though, and I appreciate
that it’s still early days, we are playing like 11 individuals that need to be
introduced to each other in the pre match huddle
We have 2 weeks now (international players apart) to get to
work with each other and start to build the understanding that all good teams
need to not only play for themselves but to play for the team.
The “team” will be greater than the sum of the parts and
when you think of the individuals we have now, and those that are to come back,
we could be in for an even better season than I’d have dared hope for
Star Man – Fraser – the catalyst for the best come back I’ve
seen at DC and tirelessly selfless in his running
North Stand
Away Fans
East Stand
Main Stand
Millwall do a funny half time dance
South Stand
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