10th Time Lucky

It's not a long walk from my university accommodation to Bournemouth FC's Victoria Park, however it feels unnatural somehow, walking through the dark in a place where I do not know too well, so it was a relief to see the floodlights blaring when I got close.

The gate was open to the ground so I walked in, however there was a small fence around the outside of the ground. When I go to Lewes games, you have to pay to get in, this is also how they count the attendance, I was expecting to have to pay a couple of quid to get in here. However as I continued walking around, there was no apparent place to pay so I stepped over the fence and stood by the pitch. The first thing I noticed was that there were not many people here.

I decided to go and stand round the other side of the pitch where the two brick made dugouts are situated. From there you can see that terrace houses surround the pitch, almost as if you are being watched from every angle. At the point in which I am noticing this, a Bournemouth player jumps over the fence behind the goal mid warm up and seemingly takes a piss in a hedge, you have to wonder whether they have toilet facilities in their changing rooms.

I hear a shout from a fan to his son "you want a bacon roll?" One of the players jokingly shouts back "yes please!" but it looks like he has already had a few. Not to be rude but the Bournemouth players didn't look to be in the greatest shape, it is no wonder they have let in some last minute goals.

Looking around it was hard o believe that this team are only two divisions below Lewes, they have a small wooden stand that is literally just some wooden benches put together. I later found out it is also a death trap as there are holes behind each seat which I nearly fell down a good 5ft!

On the pitch, the teams were coming to the end of their warm up; "We need to start getting some points, some wins, on the board" shouts there young coach, "no shit" mutters one of the fans and with 9 games gone and 0 points, Bournemouth languishing at the bottom of the table, who could blame him? The ironic thing is that at he point of saying "no shit", the groundsman was trundling round the centre circle looking for some dog poo that the referee had asked to be cleared up, you have to wonder how it got there.

The teams come out of the 'tunnel' to an unnerving silence, barely a round of applause for the team who cannot win or draw, the pointless Poppies.

Bournemouth FC 3-1 Fawley Town 01/10/13

Bournemouth's side, as I already pointed out where a large bunch of lads. The two strikers, while they lacked in pace, where two men you would not want to mess with, however early on the referee was not intimidated by them when the Fawley keeper clearly picked the ball up outside the area to deny one of them being through on goal, however the referee was not having any of it, being 20 yards behind play, of course, he knew best.

The game seemed to be even with both teams creating plenty of chances, it was easy to see how Bournemouth's last two games have involved five goals in each of them. However it was Bournemouth who had the first real opportunity when their number nine cut inside the area on the right hand side before unleashing a strike at goal, the ball fell back to his feet after a block. This time instead of shooting he picked out one of the two big strikers who mis kicked the ball on the long grass, missing the goal with his scuffed shot.

Fawley were creating chances too, however they didn't seem to have any cutting edge about them, a long free kick was played in to the area. A free header for Fawley was too soft and gave the keeper an easy catch, pretty much the most he had to do all game.

Next up Bournemouth had a penalty shout turned down when their number three left back drove in to the box after a long run before knocking the ball past his man before he appeared to be dragged down, however the referee decided a corner would be awarded claiming that the Fawley offender had won the ball with his challenge. The resulting corner nearly led to own goal of the year when a Fawley defender headed the ball back to his own keeper who had come out to collect the ball, the ball lobbed the keeper who just about managed to dive backwards in time to save what would have been a perfect dinked header just in to the wrong net.

The Bournemouth pressure was starting to show and on the 19th minute they took a deserved lead when their big number 9 received the ball on the edge of the area, he had time to look up before rolling the ball softly along the ground perfectly in to the bottom corner of the net to beat the keeper.

The lead wasn't to last for long though as Fawley instantly attacked from kick off, their tricky number 7 playing in Murphy who executed his turn perfectly running through on goal and calmly slotting past the keeper to equalise straight away for Fawley.

Bournemouth may have been worried about letting go of another winning position. However just 9 minutes later and Bournemouth had the lead again when Max Crowe picked the ball up on the half way line before playing a one two and smashing the ball home from 25 yards, a great finish in to the bottom corner, and eventually there was some noise from the Bournemouth fans.

Bournemouth this time didn't sit back and were rewarded for this on 35 minutes when their right back broke forward before pulling of a superb chop turn inside the area beating his man completely, he then fired the ball across the box where it was eventually bundled in by a mixture of attacker and defender giving Bournemouth a two goal cushion.

The second half didn't live up to the drama of the first half, however Bournemouth's number 7 nearly made it 4-1 with what would have been a world class goal. He stopped his run on the half way line when he saw the keeper was well outside of his goal, he then proceded to flick the ball in to the air before volleying it with power and accuracy, only for the ball to miss the top right hand corner of the net by a matter of inches, the keeper well beaten.

There was never any danger of Fawley bringing this one back and through out the second half, if anything it was Bournemouth who were going to score more after their right back smashed a shot against the bar, and another one nearly fell to the feet of substitute Andrews but he couldn't quite get the ball under his control.

Late on both teams should have had a goal each when Fawley raced through on goal with Murphy again, however this time probably due to the masses of rain and the long grass, his finish was weak and the keeper did not have to react fast to get down to the shot. There were no excuses however for Bournemouth substitute, number 16's miss just seconds from the end of the game. A great ball from Andrews lead to number nine tearing down the right hand side, his ball across fell perfectly for the substitute just two yards out but somehow he managed to miss the ball and hit it with his other foot straight in to the hands of the grateful keeper.

However at full time it was difficult to understand why Bournemouth only have three points after ten games, if they can perform like they did against Fawley then it is strange that they had not even managed a draw up until this point. The next game for Bournemouth is their local derby with Christchuch which could be a cracker.