Match Review: Bournemouth 1-1 MK Dons

Five minutes in and a lot of the crowd is still queuing at the ticket office

I took the opportunity whilst in the area to watch another club with a high turnover of personnel in recent times that has been sparked by a sugar daddy turning up off the pitch. Bournemouth were at home (think it was called the Goldsands Stadium this week) to Franchise FC, the club whose fans I always enjoy telling that they are not a proper club.

After missing the opening five minutes due to a ridiculous policy where fans were unable to pay on the turnstile and instead were made to queue up with all those collecting season tickets from the booking office, I walked in to a game which the home side had started very brightly indeed and were pushing the ball around nicely. It was clear to me straight away that Bournemouth wanted to get their wide players on the ball at every possible opportunity. You could sense the anticipation in the crowd in particular whenever the ball was played to Marc Pugh, who was able to trick his way past the full back every time and deliver crosses into the area. 

Bournemouth were knocking on the door.

Early exchanges

After all that early neat build up play though, it was ironically a very scrappy goal that broke the deadlock on 16 minutes. A miscued shot from outside the area ricocheted off a MK Dons defender and found its way to the feet of Lewis Grabban, who was able to swivel and pass the ball beyond the despairing MK Dons keeper Martyn whilst off balance. Not a pretty goal but I have to admire goals like this - reacting quickly to a loose ball is very difficult. 

The momentum was now with Bournemouth and for the next ten minutes they visibly grew in confidence and MK Dons were looking rattled. So much so that hot-head Alan Smith managed to fly in to an ugly two-footed tackle on Harry Arter and earn himself yet another career red card. Alan Smith looks likely to be the pantomime villain in League One this season and the Bournemouth fans took great pleasure in abusing him even after he had left the pitch. They even had the audacity to call the MK Dons team 'dirty northern bastards', which made me laugh as a frequent advocate of the argument that the north starts from Watford. I then realised that they could sing that to fans of any football league club bar Exeter, Torquay and Plymouth. And they probably do, and laugh at it every time.

Half time, 1-0 to the hosts

MK Dons keeper David Martin had resorted to time wasting from the 20th minute in a damage limitation effort and his team mates were losing track of Pugh who was constantly switching flanks, twisting and turning and whipping in crosses. But these crosses were of diminishing quality and seemed to be becoming more and more hopeful. At half time I noted in the programme that Pugh made 218 crosses in the league last year (the most in the league) but was only credited with 7 assists. This statistic told a story in itself and remained the key feature of Bournemouth's second half play. It ultimately proved their downfall and, sensing that Bournemouth had ran out of ideas, MK Dons were given the incentive to try to bring themselves back in to the game. And they were rewarded for a bolder second half approach when, a few minutes after Dean Bowditch spurned their most clear cut opportunity of the game with the goal gaping, neat build up play saw them thread through the Bournemouth defence and Daniel Powell calmly finished a move by dinking the ball over the outrushing Schwan Jalal. 

The home fans' frustration began to pour out and, smelling blood, Karl Robinson sent on Jabo Ibehre in search of an unlikely victory. There were no clear cut chances after this though; the home side huffed and puffed and the crosses came from deeper and deeper - the attractive football from the first half had descended (or should I say ascended) into Sam Allardyce style hoofball. MK Dons did show a little attacking prowess but any inroads into the Bournemouth half were soon mopped up by the impressive Cook and Addison. 

Towards the end Matt Tubbs was brought on in a final throw of the dice by manager Groves, but his introduction was met by jeers by some of the crowd, a sign that not all has been rosy for Tubbs since his big money move to Dorset from Crawley. Obviously one goal in nine appearances illustrates that he hasn't exactly hit the ground running since January but the guy has had a major operation to recover from and Bournemouth fans will need to be patient with him while he rediscovers form. Lee Barnard has been drafted in to try and make up for the lack of goals but even this, together with tonight's result and performance, simply aren't good enough to please the expectant Bournemouth fans who sensed MK Dons were there for the taking when down to ten men (as all football fans do in the same situation). The Cherries were booed off (harshly, in my opinion, as MK Dons are no pushovers) by sections of their support at the end. Clearly, as QPR have also proved in the last few weeks, big change and big money doesn't necessarily pay dividends straight away in football. In the words of Take That, "Have a little patience". That's my lesson for you all from this week's football.

Man of the match: Daniel Powell - 21 year old attacker that showed great energy and promise throughout the game. Was able to keep his head in the face of adversity and keep his nerve to finish superbly when a chance came his way. Looks a good prospect and clearly the MK Dons staff and fans rate him highly.