Graham Pearcey

Date: 12 November 1999

After scoring four goals in Tuesday's game, tonight the Cherries were on the receiving end of a similar onslaught. There is no obvious explanation for tonight's result; the 3-4-3 system that had successfully worked at home was attempted away from home and left us very vulnerable. The speed of play was impossible for our young players to match, especially as they were playing their third game in six days.

Slightly over 100 Bournemouth fans turned up at the game - very poor considering it is such a relatively short distance to travel. They hardly saw the Steve Robinson opener, which was scored at the furthest end from the visitors' terrace. The ball rolled gently in from the right and there was a long pause before the cheer went up. But from then on it was downhill; and when the fourth Gillingham goal was scored a contingent of Boscombe fans immediately left. At the end of the match no-one remained on the terrace to cheer the team off the pitch.

So the team lined up as follows (I've shown my scores out of ten). After the fourth Gills' goal Huck replaced Hayter numerically, which was achieved by Jorgensen moving from the left wing to the right :

Ovendale (6);
Young (6), Cox (7), Warren (5);
Hayter (5), Robinson (6), C Fletcher (5), Jorgensen (6);
Watson (6), S Fletcher (6), Stein (6).

My 'man of the match' : Cox.

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