Graham Pearcey

Graham Pearcey

Cherries 4 Swansea 0

Date: 6 November 2021

Today the Cherries bounced back from their first defeat of the league season (coincidentally also the first home match I’d missed) midweek – in great style.

To be honest I never really doubted it when I saw that we had a ‘proper’ left back (Davis) starting, rather than a makeshift one (Mepham). And apart from Davis the rest of the starting line-up was identical to the one I’d seen start against Huddersfield, which boded well.

Davis almost had a nightmare start when he appeared to give away a penalty by bringing down a Swansea player in the area – but it wasn’t given and, in fairness, the Swansea player(s) didn’t seem to call for it. Soon after, a good save from Travers kept the score at 0-0 as Swansea definitely had the best of the opening exchanges of the match. Finally though we got into our stride – and went one ahead with the simplest of goals: Anthony’s long pass found Billing on the left, and he crossed to Solanke who scored from close range. 1-0, and so it remained up till half time.

Very early in the second half Davis (who was now really getting into the game) crossed to Solanke who scored his second: a tricky shot, but they all count! Our third came when a Christie shot was punched away by the keeper, but straight at Anthony who headed the ball downwards into the goal. After this, Christie managed a couple more shots but nothing was going in for him. There were also several times when a good ball would cross the goalmouth but there was no-one there to meet it; the feeling was that we could improve on 3-0, but how?

In the end our fourth goal didn’t come until well into injury time, by which time some supporters (probably trying to get ahead of the crowd) had already left. Lowe threaded a ball to Anthony, who scored his second of the match and the Cherries’ fourth.

So after a poor start we’d gone on to get a convincing win, our biggest of the season to date in fact. And we remain two points clear at the top of the Championship. A very satisfactory day out.

The team lined up as follows at the start of the game:



Travers;
Stacey, Cahill, Kelly, Davis;
Kilkenny;
Christie, Lerma, Billing, Anthony;
Solanke



By the end the line-up was:



Travers;
Stacey, Cahill, Kelly, Davis;
Kilkenny;
Anthony, Lerma, L Cook, Rogers;
Lowe



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