WEST HAM 3 AFC BOURNEMOUTH 4: Wilson hat-trick sends Cherries to first victory in Premier League

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TFTSE POTM – OCTOBER 2013
AFC BOURNEMOUTH 1 CHESTERFIELD 2: Poor Cherries performance brings first home defeat
BOURNEMOUTH 1 STEVENAGE 3
Wiggins, Hollands & Robinson: Gone but not forgiven 2011
BLACKBURN 3 AFC BOURNEMOUTH 2: You can’t give teams a three-goal head start

By Tales From The South End - August, 23rd 2015

GGGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL. That’s exactly how we celebrated Callum Wilson’s and AFC Bournemouth’s first-ever goal in the big time.

Seventeen minutes later the celebration was just as excitable, just not as long and loud. Two nil up away from home against a team that had Darren Randolph in goal. Surely, it wasn’t going to be eight again? No, but it was going to be 4 again. To be fair to Randolph it could have been 8 but it was thanks to him that the score was kept down to four.

A combination of the Cherries great attacking play and some piss poor defending ensured that we were 2-0 up at half time. This was the Bournemouth team that we had come to know and love of last season. Plenty of possession, crisp passing and incisive movement, AFC Bournemouth had got thier mojo back. Simon Francis made the first goal for Callum Wilson, in a move straight out of last season. Francis moved into space on the wing, his defender got the ball off him, he won it back and passed straight to Wilson who hit a powerful first-time shot. There was no stopping that one.

West Ham didn’t learn their lesson and this time they kindly added an extra man to the Cherries for a brief second. A defensive mistake from Cresswell? put the ball into space with Wilson pouncing to lift the ball over Randolph, 2-0. The ex-Birmingham man must have been thinking ‘Here we go again, hopefully one day I will play in a team that can defend’.

It is said that AFC Bournemouth will need to take their chances to survive in the Premier League, tick. But, if we had taken all the chances created in the first half a 4-0 lead wouldn’t have been an unrealistic scoreline. If Wilson, Ritchie and Daniels had been on target with their efforts the Hammers (or is it Irons) would have been dead and buried.

Plenty of possession, crisp passing and incisive movement, AFC Bournemouth had got thier mojo back

Its amazing how quickly time passes when the other team score. In the space of five minutes (and only 7 minutes into the second half) West Ham were level. It’s good to see referees still making poor decisions, but none as poor as the Liverpool one. At least Mr Moss made a decision that was soft rather than outright wrong. King dangled out a leg as he went for the ball and down Noble went. He knew his team were in the shit and he wasn’t going to score so he did the next best thing, dive. The Premier League is all about fine margins and there wasn’t much in the tackle. Obviously West Ham fans would say definite penalty while Bournemouth fans would be incredulous that the ref had given anyhting. We always reverse the roles and if we would take it as a penalty, it was a penalty. Not that it really matters how much debate is involved, we cannot change the decision and won’t get any retrospective points.

West Ham took the iniative and five minutes later were back on level terms. A quick throw-in saw Boruc save but Kouyate was first to react with Boruc still on the ground. F**k me are we the new Premier League Blackpool? Of course not, we’re better than that, but as Eddie Howe said, we went AWOL for a bit. At 2-2 no-one was going to settle for the draw and it was AFCB stalwart Marc Pugh (on for Josh King) that provided some Premier League quality finishing. A surging run from Surman saw the ball reach Pugh on the edge of the box, first side-stepping Jenkinson and curling the ball past Randolph. This was almost as good as his goal against Bolton. Almost we said.

With the game heading to the final 10 minutes a punt upfield was chased down and won by Gradel. He ran into the box, Jenkinson gave him a cuddle, penalty. Up stepped Wilson to make it 4-2 and give Wilson his first hat-trick for AFC Bournemouth. Wilson has now scored more than the whole Arsenal team, Chelsea team, Southampton team, West Brom team, Aston Villa team, Liverpool team and Watford team. We knew he would come good and so did he. Well done Mr Wilson.

We will say it again. F**k me are we the new Premier League Blackpool? It only took West Ham three minutes to bring it back to a single goal margin. Some slack defending (that’s you Mr Cook, I think you completely missed the ball) and a ball that sent Boruc the wrong way meant the Cherries had 8 minutes (turned out to be 15 minutes) to ensure they took all three points. And, f**k me we nearly settled for a 4-4 draw, the ball being kicked off the line in the very last seconds of the game. It would have been more than West Ham deserved. They look like they will be joining us as one of the relegation favourites very soon.

LISTEN TO EDDIE HOWE GIVE HIS POST MATCH INTERVIEW AND PRAISE MARC PUGH

WHAT DO TFTSE THINK?
The personnel pick was almost perfect. The goalkeeper, back four and central midfield currently pick themselves. It’s the front four where changes are being made. Ritchie is getting more confident and will be hard to displace and Max Gradel is starting to look lively. However, elsewhere (anyone guess where this is

going? Or am I about to say something ridiculous/outrageous) King is still struggling to make an impact. His injury proved to be a blessing as Eddie Howe brought on Marc Pugh who proved to be a far more effective attacking threat. Perhaps, Eddie has found/stumbled on a different combination to solve the goals issue.

This leaves us with the one and only Callum Wilson, who produced a sensational MOTM performance. We all knew he was capable of such a show, it was just a matter of when it would come. This should give him the confidence he needs to go forth and annihilate a few more Premier League defences. Hopefully, starting with Leicester next week.

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