The last time we did chips before a game was last season before Milton Keynes - lightning doesn't strike twice though, does it .....?
We found our seats and realised we had been "rewarded" for getting our tickets early by having front row seats - thanks Reading...
Still, on the upside we were so close to the players that if I'd had scissors I could have finished off Matt Ritchie's haircut - damn those stewards...
To be honest I wasn't holding out much hope as we faced our second hoops in a week but I did think it was a nice touch for the catering staff to be wearing t-shirts with AFCB on them and they were showing an AFCB DVD on the TV’s
The game started and the Reading fans sang - wow
Their noisy stand was right next to us and they were loud and organised
So loud that it drowned out our singing to the point that it almost intimidated our ring leaders into not singing - almost, but not quite
Reading started very much on the front foot and forced a series of early corners, mostly taken by Guthrie - a man with a haircut from Ritchie's barber's gardener (you tokkin to ME?)
There were a lot of last ditch tackles and even a clearance off the line but AFCB remained organised and focussed and kept the onslaught out
Then on 24 minutes, AFCB had their first chance
A move on the right had the ball pinged to Surman and he ran at the defence
As it opened up invitingly the perennial lack of confidence showed again and instead of shooting, he tried to cut back inside and was cleverly tackled
But this was better. There was finally an ebb and flow to the game with both teams looking to push forward
On 35 minutes we had a glimpse of the astounding performance to come as Grabban received the ball with his back to goal
A fantastic swivel made the yard he needed and he fired the ball over
He saw the goal and he SHOT - let's all take a minute to think about that
Two minutes and that hope was raised to
hysteria. Ritchie was fouled out on the right and Daniels sent an inviting
cross over. A bundle of players went up and the ball was headed down and
McCarthy made a fantastic save to his left
As the ball came out 3 defenders rushed to
the line as Grabban pounced and crashed the ball into the roof of the net. It
was the ONLY place the ball could have gone in – a proper poacher’s goal. 2238
fervent Cherries fans went mad
Now in full voice, apologising to no-one,
the Red Flag was Flying
On 42 minutes, even those fans’ wildest
dreams were surpassed
Good work on the left had the ball
eventually at Ritchie’s feet and he cut inside and unleashed a ferocious right
foot shot into the bottom left corner to make it 0-2
This time the AFCB fans just went NUTS. Row
A where we were sitting all of a sudden had 3 times more people in it as the
whole crowd sang “2 nilllllll on our big day out” – a justified come back
hahaha
Half Time came at the wrong time for AFCB
as it gave Adkins time to regroup and the pattern was set.
Reading were to throw everything they could
at Bournemouth, while Bournemouth soaked it up and hit on the break
Cometh the hour, cometh the man
Grabban – much maligned, by me, was a
revelation – a different player.
His control was faultless, he ran with and
without the ball, held the ball up, brought others into game and was an all
round pain in the arse for the whole Reading team
He was a PROPER striker and not only that,
but he looked like the role of lone striker was MADE for him. Where has he been
all season?
I hope to God he’s here to stay and that
his energiser Bunny batteries never run out
Through his tireless play Bournemouth had a
string of fantastically cavalier counter attacks, breaking at lightning pace
That’s not to say this was a one man show –
he was ably backed up by the rest of the team and for me another player that
finally stepped up to the plate was Surman
Head and shoulders his best game for
Bournemouth he marshalled the midfield both in attack and defence as we at last
built a bridge between the midfield and the front man
It made all the difference as even though
we were under the cosh for periods of the second half, the breaks we created
were FAR more dangerous than the efforts being produced at the other end
Pugh (x3), Grabban and Surman were all put
through with sublime defence splitting passes but were just enable to beat the
impressive McCarthy
Even Fraser had a headed (no I couldn’t
believe it either) chance go just over as Daniels flew down the left and
crashed the ball at the keeper who parried it onto the on-rushing wee man’s
head
The Reading fans were getting nervy now and
took it out on one AFCB fan wearing a blue jacket
“Who’s the w****r, Who’s the w****r, Who’s
the w****r in the blue!!”
Then to a man, ALL AFCB fans realised the
flaw in that plan replying:
“You’re the w****rs, You’re the w****rs, You’re
the w****rs in the blue”
To see 4000 heads drop down to their
replica shirts and think, “oh shit” was PRICELESS
Reading did have a chance headed off the
line on 77 minutes but that was as close as they got up until the 1st
minute of the 4 extra.
It was a shame that half the Reading crowd
missed it as they had already filed out (fire-drill) but their right winger ran
with the ball from the touch line right across the box, riding 3 tackles and
smashing the ball goalwards
The ball ricocheted and fell nicely for Le
Fondre, who coolly slotted it home
In that past that would have caused panic
through the ranks – but not this time. Having actually learned at this level,
the last 3 minutes were spent in the corners
No frills, no chances taken, a clean
professional finish
Final score 1-2
Summary – By far the best I’ve seen
Bournemouth play this season. Still sat back a little too much for me but we broke
so quickly and cleverly and finally played like a team which knows what they
want to do and how to do it
Star Man – Grabban – Jaw droppingly good
No comments:
Post a Comment