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Date: 19 October 2002
It would be easy to moan about a goalless game, but this is in fact quite a rarity for Bournemouth, (the first I've seen in over three years,) and if it raises us to second place in Division Three that can't be bad!
The result was not unfair, even though more scoring chances came to Bournemouth than to Orient. Orient made us work hard. And our system - with just one striker - implied this was a result we would be happy with.
It could all have been very different if we'd scored through Thomas in the first minute or so. Then Orient would have been chasing the game and may have tried different tactics. But apart from that, our best chances were in the second half after we'd switched to 4-4-2. Steve Fletcher came on for Stock, who'd played a midweek game for Wales. Then Hayter came on for an apparently injured Connell. Steve won everything that was crossed to him, and this resulted in good scoring opportunities for Browning, Hayter, and Carl Fletcher (who'd otherwise had a poorer game than when he was in defence).
There are few details of this match that will be remembered for long, unless Connell's injury turns out to be serious. We'll remember just the facts that our favourite chippie, near the ground, has closed since we were last there in 1994; the park where we used to eat our chips has also closed; Orient ran out of matchday programmes long before most people arrived; the queue to get in the away terrace went all the way down the street; and the queue for food and drink inside the ground was even longer. Hopefully we'll be in a different Division than Orient next season, so we won't have to return there for a while!
The starting line-up was :
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Moss (7);
Young (7), Broadhurst (7), Ridgewell (6), Purches (8);
Browning (7);
Elliott (7), Stock (7), C Fletcher (6), Thomas (8);
Connell (7).
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