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Date: 18 September 2004
We were still sitting in the pub celebrating, half an hour after the end of this game, when news came through that the Wednesday coach, Chris Turner, had parted company with his club as a result of this defeat. Obviously losing to Bournemouth is considered the ultimate humiliation these days - and with our threadbare squad one can understand why. At least, Bournemouth will definitely achieve one thing this season - the removal of the Wednesday manager after two years' service with the club - and from the reaction of the local fans that seems a positive outcome for them! They were clearly unhappy at the match, and some left very early indeed to demonstrate their displeasure.
This was a hard-fought win. We were under great pressure in the first twenty minutes, and for much of the second half, but a combination of shoddy shooting (especially from Wednesday's Peacock) and another fine display by Moss (who was kept busy in this match) meant we somehow kept a clean sheet. Stock's deep midfield role also helped, especially as none of the back four had a wonderful game and 'captain' Broadhurst (who's not really a right back) and Maher looked particularly poor. (They often got into mix ups in the first half, as a result of which Sean swopped Maher and Howe for the second half so that Howe was playing in-field from Broadhurst and Maher from Cummings in the second half.)
The Bournemouth goal came four minutes before half time, from new loan signing Spicer (from Arsenal). Rodrigues crossed the ball in front of Spicer, who timed his run to perfection to take on the Wednesday goalie one-to-one. Having scored, he saluted the away supporters.
Of course we also had other scoring opporunities apart from Spicer's goal. Hayter had one shot that skimmed the post just ten minutes into the game (off an Elliott cross). Rodrigues had some opportunities too, but seems to get caught off-side a bit too often. And with Elliott and O'Connor playing so well (especially considering Elliott was carrying a toe injury) we were managing to get the ball forward a lot.
Holmes and Connell started on the bench, coming on for Rodrigues and O'Connor respectively late in the game. Both were cheered on (were the 'nice one Derek' chants sarcastic, or a genuine attempt to lift the player's confidence I wonder?) and O'Connor received a standing ovation as he came off. The starting line-up (with my scores out of ten) was :
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N Moss (8);
Broadhurst (6), Maher (5), Howe (6), Cummings (6);
Stock (8);
Elliott (9), Spicer (7), Hayter (7), O'Connor (8);
Rodrigues (7).
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