By Essential Cherries Rich
Bournemouth
got back to winning ways at home with a 1-0 win over Barnsley.
Mark
Pugh capped off a five day period which included the only goal in the game, and
the birth of his second child.
In
a game that the fans may have expected more from but in truth delivered little,
saw the Cherries move up to seventh in the table.
Eddie
Howe gave a second chance to the players that started against Blackpool by
naming an unchanged side, but included new signing Tokelo
Rantie on a subs bench that consisted of both Ian Harte and Richard Hughes.
In all honesty, Bournemouth controlled most of the game,
including arguably a very flat first half.
Barnsley appeared to find
kicking into open space a more productive attacking method in comparison to the
Cherries more traditional style of possession.
The only major incident
to occur during the first half was a booking to Barnsley forward Chris Dagnall,
for what appeared to be a very meaty challenge on Brett Pitman.
For all their possession the Cherries could only create a couple
of tame efforts from Ryan Fraser and an off target header from Pitman.
The Cherries were almost made to pay for their casualness when
Barnsley struck the post twice within a matter of seconds, firstly Chris
O’Gradys shot from the left where he had found some space came off the right
hand post and this was followed up by Steve Dawson who seemed to get the better
of Allsop, only to see his rebounding shot strike the same upright.
Bournemouth finished the half strong with a number of crosses
from Charlie Daniels, this momentum was met with roars from the crowd that was
also in aid of Ranties first warm up along the pitch.
Words from Eddie Howe at half time must have worked as
Bournemouth almost broke the deadlock just minutes into the second half as
Lewis Grabban, through on goal dragged an excellent chance wide.
Again the Cherries fans were up in applause, the biggest of the
night when on 55 minutes Rantie was introduced to the Goldsands replacing
Fraser.
Rantie looked dangerous with his first touch on the ball, but
unfortunately dragged a chance wide of the Barnsley goal.
From this point on, the Cherries took full control of the game
with further chances from Rantie, Ward and Grabban.
The breakthrough came in the 77th minute when Pugh
found himself with the ball at his feet he managed to shake off his marker just
outside the 18 yard box and drive a low range shot into the bottom left hand
corner of the goal.
Although the win looked clear cut after, this there was to be
one final heart in mouth moment! O’Gradys run minutes before full time found
himself in a great shooting position, only for Ward to provide a much needed
block which rolled away for a wasted corner by Barnsley.
A fourth win for the Cherries in seven games gives much hope to
the home fans who are riding a wave of the unknown and hoping that Eddie Howe
can cement his place amongst some of the clubs great managers by leading the
club to further wins this season….the next being away to Middlesborough
Bournemouth 1 – 0 Barnsley
Attendance: 7574
Cherries Star Man: Mark Pugh
No comments:
Post a Comment