Ricardo's Report V Bournemouth

[ricardo 7,328]

I was chatting with my son on the stroll up to CR this afternoon and happened to mention that I couldn''t recall us playing Bournemouth since the old Third Division South days back in the 1950''s. In that dim and distant pass I also found it hard to recall ever seeing us beat them. In any event none of that should have been relevant today, should it?City started reasonably well with a long spell of possession until Grabban''s wayward cross was easily cleared. The Cherries came back with their own spell of possession but despite some good and energetic running they could make little impression on the City rearguard. With so much play going sideways I remarked that someone needed to take a man on and at that moment Redmond danced past his marker and wonder of wonders produced a perfect centre for Grabban to flash a header past the keeper and give City the lead.For a while it was City calling the tune although they could never fully subdue the eager Bournemouth midfielders who chased and harried to good effect. Grabben struck a low twenty yarder just wide then Laffers brought a save out the keeper and as City probed around the area the Bournemouth defence was often at full stretch to crowd us out.Bournemouth looked quite a sharp outfit but despite good ball they held little threat up front. Indeed there was almost half an hour on the clock before Ruddy was called upon to come out and punch a cross away. At the other end Wes and Laffers combined well only for the big mans rising shot to clear the bar by a couple of feet. On about 40 minutes, Lee Camp in the visitors goal had to move sharply to palm away a Redmond free kick but mostly chances were limited by far too many wasted final balls.With seconds remaining in time added Bournemouth kept possession well but there seemed little danger until Redmond lost his man on the right and a low cross caught the City defence asleep and Wilson volleyed in an unlikely equaliser. It was a very disappointing end to half as City had seemed fairly secure at the back until that moment.For the opening quarter of an hour of the second period, things got very ragged with passes going astray and moves breaking down. Murphy replaced Laffers but to very little purpose as the game carried on in much the same vein. Wes was his usual mixture of the sublime and the ridiculous only there was not enough of the former and too much of the latter in his performance today.Jerome came on for Redmond, who had also enjoyed a game of mixed fortunes, a couple of nice crosses but too much wild shooting for my liking. Jerome held the ball up well a couple of times but really got little in the way of service in City''s lacklustre performance. Tetty and John did some good hard driving from midfield and although it mostly came to naught there was certainly enough for Alex Tetty to claim my MOM. There was a lot of endeavour but very little quality and you could see the writing on the wall long before Bournemouth shut up shop in the final ten minutes. Their defence earned a couple of yellow cards as first Johno and then Wes were hacked down but City failed to exact any sort of punishment and Johno''s twenty yard free kick in the dying minutes was probably the only effort that brought anything out of Lee Camp.So a rather frustrating and disappointing end to the day and I still don''t ever recall seeing us beat Bournemouth at Carrow Rd.[W][:(]

[YankeeCanary 0]

 

Thank you Ricardo. I think I remember reading somewhere else that Redmond''s cross was from the right. He may feel more comfortable there.

[GenerationA47 746]

Cheers rico for your usual helpful lifeline to the exiled

[Yelloow Since 72 54]

Excellent as usual, Ricardo.

[Mr Jenkins 0]

Good report as ever Ricardo, I felt we tried to overplay the ball at times today when a more direct approach might have proved more fruitfull.I wouldn''t say anyone had a particularly bad game, just a general lack lustre performance. It happens, the break will do us good.

[ROBFLECK 132]

Thanks Ric, good read as ever!

[Indy 3,283]

Nice Ricardo, my one word for our performance would be Hungover!

I think Adams needed to freshen things up at half time, but I''m sure it''s hard to change a winning team.

Last thing I would have kept Laffs on pushed him up top alongside Grabban, it was only change like for like in the system.

That said a point in the bag and a well earned rest for the team.

[waggers 0]

Thanks Ricardo, as usual pretty spot on.

I was thinking at about the hour mark we needed another player to get in the box so I was pleased that Jerome got the call. I was a bit surprised Redders got the hook though and one of the first things Jerome had to do was to run into the hole left by Redders and cross the ball to an empty box. Sods law I think it''s called!

Walking away from the ground I felt like we had lost. Shows how things have changed for the better I suppose.

[Sussexyellow 55]

You are right Ricardo Bournemouth are a bogey team for us at CR.

I may be wrong but I think I read that the last time we beat them was November 1951. Obviously not a regular league fixture, but there have been a few since which have resulted in something like 5 Bournemouth wins and now 5 draws.

I thought it was a frustrating game today. They packed midfield got a fair bit of possession but were not that threatening going forward. Waited patiently for their one chance and took it well. The rest of the time they seemed happy to stop us playing rather than going for the win. They seemed pleased with the result at the end.

I think we can expect a lot of sides to adopt that type of approach so we need to learn quickly how to deal with it. That said Bournemouth are a well drilled team with some good players, hopefully other teams will be less adept.

[Mr Jenkins 0]

We are undoubtedly going to see this a lot of teams play like this Sussex, we did try to stretch the midfield but the goal apart couldnt really do enough when we found some space out wide.

We seem to be playing a lot of long diagonal balls, delivering them pretty accurately to be fair, but they dont seem to be delivering the space that we need, or perhaps we are just not using it well enough.

[Bill 1,788]

I think we sat on the 1-0 too long, then in the second half it seemed like we were a bit wary of being hit again and actually losingso didn''t really go for ittime will tell if this was a one off or a deeper ''failingI think if we had picked up this draw straight after Wolves away we would have been pleased, but three straight league wins had cranked up the expectation before the game - and then during the game as it looked like ours to win or loseso many will feel we should have wonand we will have to if we want to get back to the PL first time...... but, it is still early days

[Cosmic Twin 184]

Thanks for the report Ricardo!

[AJ 1,218]

Thanks as always Recardo, will definitely be interesting to see whether having a bit more strength from the bench with our new signings can make a difference. Would be much better being able to bring on two attacking wingers who will run at the defence in the closing stages. Hopefully the Falkirk lad has a good final ball!