Peter Neil Bell's Blog: Cherry Chimes, page 61

Were AFCB too desperate to score?

It is unusual for AFCB to be a team that struggles to create chances and make the most of their opportunities, but they didn't really get going against Norwich City. The team went out without Josh King, but was a credible attacking fore, so why did Bournemouth fail to register many significant chances against Norwich City?
AFCB didn't quite get the balance right up front but did ell at the back.
Firstly, you have to credit the visitors that grew into the game and commanded a slightly higher share of possession. Bournemouth didn't really use the ball well enough in the areas where it mattered. The only player for me that looked to quicken things when AFCB got in and around the box was Diego Rico. Most of the time he looked up first before trying to cross or pass, but there were one or two occasions when he lost possession just hoping that a quick pass would find a red and black shirt. I say that and for me Rico was the best Cherries player on Saturday.


Online-Bookies.org.ukMost of Bournemouth's creativity came from Rico or Callum Wilson running out wide and trying to make things happen. What I am saying is why weren't Ryan Fraser and Harry Wilson more effective on the wings in getting past their markers and finding gaps amongst Norwich's midfield and defence? It was no surprise that Danjuma was given a chance and we saw from him some of the attacking mentality that I felt was missing from the earlier play.

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eBook version -available now!I am not sure if Bournemouth were looking to be too precise. They had worked their way through the defence on a couple of occasions but didn't finish well - yes, Solanke's chance stands out. Callum Wilson's foot out to try and direct the ball goalwards in the second half from Rico was just great improvisation. Sadly, it didn't quite come off. I didn't get the sense that Bournemouth were really getting up a head of steam like they sometimes do and it was a bit fortunate and in part down to Ramsdale's skill in the end, that Teemu Pukki didn't quite find the bottom corner to give Norwich all the points.

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In other news, congratulations to Aaron Ramsdale on his new contract with AFCB.

A clean sheet is something to be pleased about

Bournemouth toiled without much good fortune on Saturday. Norwich City needed to defend resolutely after their 5-1 crushing home defeat against Aston Villa, and they came to Bournemouth with a real determination not to conceded. But for Bournemouth there has been little pleasure from gaining their first clean sheet, because this was a game where many would have expected the Cherries to win.
Aaron proved again that he is top class wit his save from Pukki late on.You have to learn fast in the Premier League and Norwich City are doing that. Whether Bournemouth are learning as much now as in their earlier days in this league is more difficult to prove. But the Cherries have left it late to get their first clean sheet of the season and fans should be pleased that at least we have one now.
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The player that might gain most from the clean sheet is Aaron Ramsdale who has played well in all of Bournemouth's games but must have been beginning to question himself when the clean sheet would some. The clean sheet was also helped by the return of Adam Smith who looked like he had never been away. The belief that the team is getting stronger with players returning is only going to be backed up by getting wins in the coming games.

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While Norwich are not the strongest of teams, they did test the Cherries with their 10 shots, even if they only managed one on target. Bournemouth now they will need to do better themselves in from of goal too with just 11 shots at home and two on target. There will be better days but at least Bournemouth took a point, which keeps them moving forward after the defeat against Arsenal.

Eddie Had A Dream: Our Special One - Paperback Available Now!

While we have a quiet period in the international break, I though it might be helpful to give you an exclusive excerpt to one of the Chapters in Eddie Had A Dream. One of the early chapters is '1. Our Special One' and it looks at what Eddie Howe has to make him successful and his relationship with the fans. Here's a glimpse of part of the chapter.
Eddie Howe is certainly a special one!Extract from Eddie Had A Dream:
Chapter 1. Our Special One
What Eddie has achieved in such a short period of time is simply amazing. But what has helped him along the way? Has he made mistakes, and if so, has he a natural talent for not making the same mistakes again? I wanted to know how Eddie Howe has won games and to trace his early football career. To look through the history and difficulties and experiences Eddie had as a player to see how it shaped his outlook on football. While asking Eddie Howe to explain all he could about the game would be the easy way to do things, he has a much bigger job to run a Premier League club and I have no wish to be another person who deflects him from the great job he is doing. So much of the words and Eddie’s commentary have come from past newspaper reports and match programmes.

This book is more of a documentation of the Eddie Howe years than a face to face biography of his life. But I hope it throws up some discussion on why AFC Bournemouth has achieved what many football teams find so hard to do – how to win?


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As a Bournemouth fan, I have lived through some of the highs and lows of the Cherries recent years. Harry Redknapp years as manager (1983-92) had been fantastic. To eclipse that has been incredible. There is a motto at the club which has now become enshrined in the Eddie Howe years that reads: ‘Together, anything is possible.’ It is a belief that reminds fans that there have been hard times, desperate times and even times when there seemed no hope of football having a future in Kings Park. Indeed, if Jeff Mostyn had decided to shake his head one morning in April 2008 and had not written another sizeable cheque, there would have been no football club to talk about – it came that close!

However, the worries of this perennial second and third tier professional English league football club were about to be not only saved, but transformed by one of their very own. It may seem corny to opposing fans when AFC Bournemouth fans cry - ‘Eddie, Eddie give us a wave!’ However, there is a genuine bond between the fans and the man who is undoubtedly the club’s favourite son.
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I want to try and tell you what it is like to be an AFC Bournemouth fan. You have to understand that it is the only football league club in Dorset. It has been dwarfed by the somewhat more successful Southampton FC, some 30 odd miles up the road. Something was needed to ignite this sleepy seaside town when it came to football. But how do we measure success? Is it surviving, when the odds are stacked against a club? That would have been good enough for those supporters that queued up with buckets at the Winter Gardens to save their club in its darkest days. Yet, even then some good would come out of the situation. Friendships were made, people dug deep for a shared goal. Fans refused to give in. AFC Bournemouth was the first community run club and, having been saved several times, we wondered – was there more to football than this? When something is saved, someone has to make the most of what is left.

The £13.49 paperback version of the book is now available on Amazon/Kindle - click on this link

To order your £9.99 ebook copy of Eddie Had A Dream - click on this link

Bournemouth and Norwich fire blanks in 0-0 draw

Match ReportAFCB 0 v 0 Norwich City19 October 2019Attendance: 10,669 Scrum down, AFCB and Norwich before kick-offThis was a game where Bournemouth would have expected to take three points, but just like the Sheffield United match they struggled to be effective in the last third. Rico was again at his best delivering crosses, but the team couldn't get a clear chance from any of them. Solanke had the best chance first half but couldn't beat Krul who closed him down. Callum Wilson came close in the second half when Rico floated a ball in that the striker glided just wide with an outstretched foot. But it was Norwich who could have won it second half when Pukki shot from the edge of the box to have Ramsdale tipping it around the corner at full stretch.
Bournemouth made a few changes with Lewis Cook, Ryan Fraser and Adam Smith coming into the side and Jack Stacey, Jefferson Lerma and Josh King coming out. King moved to the bench. Norwich made three changes. Out went McGovern and Stiepermann and they were replaced by Krul and Tetty.

There are more images on Match Day Gallery .

Chimes to Camera: Norwich City fan Carol give a pre-match interview.
Ryan Fraser made the first corner, on three minutes, which led Diego Rico have a volley go over from 30 yards.

Harry Wilson took a tumble outside the box. Rico hit the free kick too strongly and out of play.

A steady build up led to Rico winning another corner but still there was no shot on target for the Cherries.

Norwich go long with McLean on the left and Lewis Cook concedes the corner, which Ake then clears.

Rico shows a lovely touch before a Bournemouth third corner, which Billing got underneath and hit over on 11 minutes.

Lewis and Pukki get down the left and Lewis Cook has to stop Pukki from getting a shot in. Billing clears the first corner, before Ramsdale catches the second.

Norwich press well and Pukki gets in, but is offside. Aarons is then caught offside. Great early ball by Rico to Wilson and Solanke has a one on one with Krul but has his shot saved for a corner!

Steve Cook just does enough to hold off Lewis for Ramdale to collect.

Leitner is run off the ball by Billing returning. Lewis 12 is booked for a foul on Harry Wilson. Rico crosses deep for Solanke and Godfrey has to head clear. Lewis Cook nutmegs Pukki and Pukki has to laugh.

Adam Smith puts a big tackle in on Lewis. Fraser almost gets in but has his pass cut out. Lewis finally gets attention for his injury.

Rico puts ball in but Callum can't make it stick.

Lewis and Cantwell almost get in to shoot  at the other end, but the danger is shut out before Solanke makes a mess of playing out.
Where are the goals?Second half
Fraser's cross is in behind Callum Wilson. Adam Smith puts the ball in to Harry Wilson and the cross just misses at the far post.

Godfrey goes off and Trybull  comes on. Fraser cross is caught by Krul.

Callum holds the ball up well and Adam Smith drills a shot just over with the assistant referee raising his flag.

McLean has a shot blocked before Pukki shoots and it's deflected over. Amadou heads over.

Rico, on for Callum Wilson and it's just wide of the far post.

Callum and 27 chase the high ball. Rico has to slide to stop Pukkis break.

McLean is blocked and Aarons has an effort cleared by Steve Cook. On 62 minutes Josh King is on for Solanke.

Ramdale saves a hard hit cross well. A shot then goes wide of left post from Norwich. Pukki shoots and Ramsdale saves low to his right on 66 minutes - great save! King is on the break but hist the pass too hard for Harry Wilson.

McLean is booked for chopping down Harry Wilson. Harry Wilson is replaced by Danjuma on 69 minutes.

Adam Smith is carded for a foul on McLean. Cantwell to Amadou who shoots over.

Good play from Callum and Josh, before Danjuma cuts in and Krul gets down to save to his left. Danjuma again has a shot blocked by Trybull and he's gone down form the blow.

Cantwell is subbed for  Hernández for Norwich on 81 minutes.

A shot is drilled wide by Trybull and  Ramsdale was at full stretch high to his left.

Buéndia fouls Danjuma. Buéndia fouls Fraser. The corner is volleyed over by Danjuma.

Pukki takes Adam Smith out but only a yellow. A long Steve Cook throw and Billing heads wide. Billings shot is deflected.

Norwich sub Srbeny is on and Leitner goes off on 89 minutes. Into added time and there's four minutes to go Corner to Norwich. That's it 0-0.
A point takes AFCB up to ninth.SummaryIt is days like this when you have to come away and just be thankful that your team didn't lose the game. It could so easily have happened as Norwich grew in confidence second half. While Eddie Howe must be pleased with a clean sheet that is no goals scored in the last two matches and for those saying Fraser should start, it didn't make a dramatic difference to chances created. Solanke probably had Bournemouth's best chance of he match but he doesn't see himself scoring at the moment. Lewis Cook was playing quite deep and Harry Wilson is getting involved in play enough for me.


AFCB Line-up AFCB subs: Boruc, Francis, Surman, Mepham, Kelly, Danjuma, King
AFCB Ratings
Ramsdale 7, Rico 8, Aké7, S Cook 7, A Smith 7, H Wilson 5, Billing 6, L Cook 6, Fraser 6,
Solanke 5, C Wilson 7

Cherry Chimes MoM: Diego Rico
Ref Watch: Lee Mason  3/10 - Another curious display from Lee Mason. Does he see the fouls at all? Or players walking off not at their nearest exit point from the pitch?

Norwich City
1 Krul, 2 Aarons, 24 Amadou, 4 Godfrey (Trybull 50), 12 Lewis, 27 Tettey, 17 Buendía, 
10 Leitner (Srbeny 89), 23 McLean 14 Cantwell (Hernández 81)
22 Pukki

Norwich Subs
33 McGovern, 3 Byram, 11 Hernández, 18 Stiepermann, 19 Trybull, 20 Drmic, 32 Srbeny

Which Norwich City will turn up at Dean Court?

I was one of the few bloggers who looked at Norwich City at the start if the season and thought, they could stay up and surprise a few teams. My views was in part shaped by what a close game the Canaries gave AFCB's players in the Carabao Cup last season. But what I didn't expect was them to be good enough to beat Man City at home.
Norwich fans visit Dean Court today, but will they have their feathers clipped?The matches have not been all as well celebrated as Norwich's win against the defending Champions. Last time out they were battered 1-5 at home by Aston Villa. The Canaries only other League win came at home against Newcastle United. So on the road it has been a bit of a slippery slope, with no wins and a hefty 4-1 defeat against Liverpool on the first night of the season as well as defeats to Crystal Palace, Burnley and West Ham United.

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                          Still, everyone has noticed that Norwich are scoring goals and most of them are coming from their Finnish striker Teemu Pukki, who has six goals from his eight appearances. He's been well supported by Todd Cantwell who has two goals from midfield.

Like Bournemouth, though, Norwich have struggled to keep a clean sheet. They have also lost Tim Krul for two games with a back problem, although he could be back for the Bournemouth match. A bigger miss is probably Christoph Zimmierman who was the star performer at centre-back for Norwich City last season. Grant Hanley another centre-back is also injured. So you can see that Daniel Farke has had to make a few changes.

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eBook version -available now!

All of this is perhaps good news for Bournemouth fans to hear, but Norwich City are in the bottom three and they know they'll need points to get out of there, and that they can't expect to survive on home form alone.

Norwich City last time out below. Expect a few changes as they have several players coming back.
33 McGovern, 2 Aarons, 24 Amadou, 4 Godfrey, 12 Lewis10 Leitner, 23 McLean, 17 Buendía, 18 Stiepermann14 Cantwell, 22 Pukki


AFCB Home FormDLWD
Norwich Away FormLLLL

Look out for my answers to some Norwich City blogger questions at Norwich City My Football Writer.
An unchanged team for me for AFCB
Subs: Boruc, Francis, L Cook, Surman, Ibe, Fraser, Danjuma
Norwich City Press conference


AFCB TV preview

Is Danjuma deserving of more minutes?

We have not seen a great deal of Arnaut Danjuma. He has come on as a late sub a couple of times and while he is being introduced gradually, he could find that the international breaks is a great opportunity to get up to speed with what Eddie Howe wants him to do. AFCB did not say he was away on international duty, so I assume he stayed in Bournemouth.
Arnaut Danjuma - just how good is he?The first few run outs for Danjuma have shown he has pace and can cut in well, But I have not seen too much of him as an impact player. The thing that Eddie will want him to do is start getting to know patterns of play well and integrating more with what the rest of the team are trying to achieve when they build up play. At the moment I am not sure how easy it is for Danjuma to just jump on the same wavelength that the rest of the team are operating on.Advertisement 
Eddie has not given him a start yet as Danjuma has been coming back from injury but with this two week break, you'd expect that the Dutchman is ready to play more minutes, especially if Howe has had any behind door friendlies in the international break period. Lewis Cook probably also needs minutes as does Simon Francis, so it would not be a big surprise if some players have had a an extra match or two out of view.

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Harry Wilson was subbed at the Emirates for Danjuma to come on, but Wilson was okay as he played about 24 minutes for Wales against Slovakia last Friday and 22 minutes against Croatia on Sunday. The fight for a place in the team is really tough now and it should get harder still. While Billing, Harry Wilson and Stacey have been given chances and taken them, it will be good for AFCB if Danjuma can also get starts soon. It is possible that Eddie may make a change or two anyway next game with the team looking to find a way to get back to winning ways. Danjuma would be an interesting choice.


T-shirt competition
Send in your score predictions for #AFCB v Norwich City for a chance to win a Cherry Chimes T-Shirt. If there are more than one correct score we will pick a winner from the hat.


Look out for my answers to some Norwich City blogger questions at Norwich City My Football Writer later today.

Fixture list changes - see afcb.co.uk  And good luck to Carl Fletcher at Leyton Orient!
Eddie Howe's Norwich City preview interview

Eddie Had A Dream - Dressed in Claret extract

While most of the recent years have seen Eddie Howe and Jason Tindall dressed in Red and Black at AFC Bournemouth, there was a period when things were very different. It seemed quite strange to see Eddie Howe dressed in Claret at Burnley FC, yet we had lost our converted manager to a Championship club. How would AFC Bournemouth recover from this? Here is another extract from 'Eddie Had A Dream'.

Eddie Howe found it a real challenge when he decidedto join Burnley as manager in the Championship.As we near the release of the paperback version of 'Eddie Had A Dream', here we take a snippet of the text from the chapter 9. 'Dressed in Claret' from Eddie Had A Dream and remember what it was like to suddenly realises that Eddie Howe and Jason Tindall really had left AFC Bournemouth in January 2011.
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When Eddie Howe was asked whether it had been hard to leave the south coast club, he replied: ‘Extremely difficult. I’ve had a fantastic time here. The majority of my career has been spent here and you know I love the club deeply, but I just feel this is too good an opportunity to turn down,’ said Eddie…’I leave with real sadness. I don’t lack drive or ambition,’ he added.

He had turned down two clubs on the Tuesday, but by the Thursday he was sure that Burnley was a club where he and Jason could develop. They would take over from Brian Laws, who had been sacked on 29 December 2010 after a 0-2 home defeat to 22nd placed Scunthorpe United. Everything was set-up to have a tilt at promotion with Burnley, lying in 10th place and just six points off the play-off positions.

Yet, Howe had inherited a team that had been relegated from the Premier League. It was a rebuilding job that meant stripping out the big wage earners and starting again. Howe was intrigued by the project. It was a club with heritage and in a small town, many miles from the south coast. Howe knew his credentials would be tested in a league where he hadn’t managed before. He would sign a three-and-a-half year contract.


Online-Bookies.org.uk Here is a little bonus clip relating to when AFC Bournemouth were closing in on promotion to the Premier League in 2015 with some nervy matches against Reading and Brighton & Hove Albion. Do you remember the scores and goalscorers?


The paperback issue of 'Eddie Had A Dream' is due to be released on Monday  21 October 2019. The link will be posted on Cherry Chimes, but you will also be able to find it by typing in Eddie Had A Dream in the search field on Amazon. The price of the paperback is £13.49.
For the moment AFC Bournemouth fans can read a few sample pages and download the ebook at this link. Please leave a review if you do download the ebook and please keep spreading the word. 

More to come from the Cherries- Well let's have it!

Eddie Howe promised there was more to come from the Cherries after the Arsenal game. How far short Bournemouth are of being 100 per cent is not clear, but looking back at the past eight games can we really say that AFCB played the other team off the park for 90 minutes very often?
AFCB have been slow starters, so we have to get them up for coming out
of the blocks fast against Norwich City.I'd argue the wins against Aston Villa, Southampton and Everton were all great but were they comprehensive wins? The score lines in the Southampton and Everton games might suggest that they were, but they were fairly tight games with Everton perhaps showing Bournemouth as their most dominant. So, there is work to do.


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But where is the improvement going to come from? Arguably Eddie needs players coming back to fitness and the big player for me is Lewis Cook. Can Lewis be put into the team and does Eddie have to change formation to do it? I suppose he would if he wants to keep Billing and Lerma in the team as well, but are Billing and Lerma doing enough as a duo in the centre of the park? I'd probably say it's not consistent enough yet and what we have seen of Lewis, perhaps he deserves another go now.

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The team was flat for 45 minutes against Arsenal and the team simply can't afford to do that in a home game against Norwich who will come thinking they have every chance of getting something from this game. I am hoping Eddie does something bold to give Bournemouth a strong start and get the team pressing Norwich in their own half. We can't afford another passive game. So, if there is more to come from the Cherries, let's have it!
Coming next week - the paperback version of Eddie Had A Dream

Ramsdale England's No 1 - well, he's getting closer

I loved the video interview that Harry Wilson did for AFCBTV on Aaron Ramsdale. I think Harry has a career in the making there when the football playing days end. The affection that Aaron has built up with the AFCB fans already though is tremendous. We think he is England's No1, and I don't think it will be long before he is thought of in that way far outside of Bournemouth.
Aaron can't be far away from an England call up.What I see the fans can identify with Ramsdale is that he is a character. You have to have a screw slightly loose if you play in goal, and the main thing for Aaron at the moment should be just to enjoy playing. It is a fantastic achievement for him to be playing at such a young age in the Premier League and he looks perfectly at home there.


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Of course, Aaron has to keep his standard high and keep his professionalism when he represents the club and he can do that and be pleased with is performances when he pulls off the saves, but I see a cheeky side to him and I expect he has to tone things down at some points. You need some loud characters in the team though and I think Aaron could be one of the players of the season. He is super confident and I hope he remains so.


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With Aaron doing so well, it is only going to make Mark Travers work even harder. It's quite possible that AFCB have two of the best young keepers of any Premier league club so keeping hold of them both may be a stretch for the club in the long term. They both will be getting great tips from Artur Boruc and his experience could be part of the reason why these two young men have come on so fast. It must seem crazy that a goalkeeper that both Travers and Ramsdale surely look up to is also working to improve them, but they seem to be soaking up the information like a sponge. The longer Aaron can pick Artur for information, the closer Aaron will be to claiming that England Number on jersey.

In other news, Callum Wilson came on as a second half sub in England's 6-0 win against Bulgaria hitting the post with the last kick of the game. Congratulations also to former Cherry Tyrone Kings on making his England debut in that game. There were also some disgusting racist taunts in the stadium, but it was good to see that the England players wanted to complete the game.
The paperback version of Eddie Had A Dream
will be available from Monday 21 October 2019.

Eddie Howe Had A Dream ebook - Download Today!

While Eddie Had A Dream has been available to pre-order as an ebook for a couple of weeks, you can now just go straight to Amazon and purchase the book for a download in seconds from today. I know some AFCB fans are keener to buy the paperback book when it is released on 21 October, which is fine. But I thought I would like to outline a few of the advantages that the ebook has to offer.


With the ebook everything is digital, so the format of the book can be adjusted for mobile, Kindle or laptop/tablet/PC computer viewing. You can also change the size of font to suit yourself and the pictures are in colour on mobile devices and tablets, but not on Kindle or in the paperback where the images are black and white.

Online-Bookies.org.ukThe versatility of the ebook also allows readers to jump to any chapter from the table of contents. The big difference with the ebook is that from February 2013, when I started writing Cherry Chimes, there is a back catalogue of blog posts and these can be accessed directly from the text when you click on any of the hyperlinks. So, if you are particularly interested in a match that is being described, but want to see how it was reported at the time, you can jump straight over to Cherry Chimes and read the post, before clicking back and carrying on with the ebook text. So, the last six years of the ebook, which include the promotion from League One and the two Championship seasons, plus the four Premier League seasons are interactive in this way.

The other benefits is that the ebook is available to download right now and priced at £9.99, which is a bit of a saving on the paperback, which will retail at £13.49. Anyway, if you were undecided which version of the book to go for, I hope this provides more information. Personally, I like to handle a book and have it on my shelf, but if you are similar you'll have to wait until next week to order your paperback copy.

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The paperback book will be uploaded on 21 October 2019 and will be available to purchase within 72 hours of that upload, ie by end of 23 October 2019 at the latest.

Goodreads: Video preview - what it's like to be an AFC Bournemouth fan

In other news, Harry Wilson played 22 minutes in the second half as a sub in Wales, 1-1 draw against Croatia.