Match Day Thread AFC Bournemouth v Watford

...and Merson hinted the TD might be going now...

I think he just makes it up.....

 

No 'think' about it - he simply doesn't know. I can't see that MS would go back on his word about Troy - and quite frankly, on today's performance, I'll be quite surprised if he's not back in the starting line up next week. against Brighton. For me, there is simply no way that Okaka will displace him - and Gray is yet to prove himself better.

 

A good second half performance, after an evenly matched first - Bournemouth ran out of steam and Watford looked so much fitter. It should have been 0.1 just before the stroke of half time, and Gray admitted that.

NC should have put us up again, and why the ref didn't spot the blatant trip on Gray as NC ran through shows his incompetence and Bournemouth´s dirt. Again, and this may have been before, the Bournemouth player´s shout that made NC leave the cut back, that is not going to win any fair play awards that is for sure.

I thought when Defoe came on, it was written but maybe that is more the Watford of old. They really pushed on well and deserved the win. The Brazilian lad put a great shift in and had their LB on toast, scrappy goal but got the break there - a good assist by Gray. Capoue´s strike to seal it was class. Bournemouth never really looked like scoring.

A great away win, the first for the club in a long time, since the Gunners away.

MS´s first in the prem too...

 

Well done Golden Boys, nice to have something to smile about, seeing cheating manager and team failing!

 

I can only hope that the competition does TD9 good, if he doesn´t get much of a look in he´ll be gone in Jan I think.

Okaka must be wondering how he didn´t start today after the game against Liverpool. It´s good to have options I guess, Gray can´t keep missing those like today with competition either.

Finally, Doucouré played so well, great to see Watson come on and Holebas didn´t get booked!!

Have a good weekend all!!

 

I thought Gray put himself about and had a good energy. Great to have CF's fighting for the No. 9 spot. Good shifts from our wing-backs. Agreed Doucoure the unsung hero yet again. Capoue's experience told for his.

Bournemouth deserve nothing when their main M.O. is cheating. Disgraceful. Retrospective banning is the only answer to stop Howe playing the percentages where the pros of cheating outweigh the cons.

Silva seems to have brought a level of organisation that is far beyond what we have seen for a long time.

 

Funny how we all see something different when looking at a game. I can well understand how we look for the good in our team, and when we win a game see only the best, or last season often the worst. SH clearly doesn't like Amrabat, and I will admit that I find his ability to get a good cross in can be frustrating, but today Derek Payne said how well he played as an essential part of a very good mid-field. I have read three different reports of the game, and they have all seen something different. Poor game, Watford showing that they are very well organized, Bournemouth put on a below average display. Was it a poor game for a neutral, did Watford simply show that they were organized without any flair, or how much did Bournemouth have a poor day because they had their normal game disrupted? I suppose that if you are a reporter you will not have the same connection with a team in the way that we do, and they sometimes only say what is the first thing that comes in to their heads as they rush at the end of a game to file a report. There are also the pundits who find that their words come back to haunt them after they say something that looks rather silly to the club fan who knows better. I guess that if I was asked to write a piece on Bournemouth or Stoke as an example, I would have to do research, but that is something I would do if I was hoping to make a living out of it. Of course I never made a name for myself as a professional player.

 

I think TD9 may play on Tuesday night to get some game time - not sure what MS thinks of the early stages of the League Cup as Hull were in the SF when he took over.

 

Only 36 more points required now!

 

Even in this game Bournemouth tries a couple of sneaky tricks!!!

Arter calling out when Chalobah was ready to shoot and Cook hacking down Gray.

BTW Didn't Rinaldi score at Blackburn in the 06/07 season?

Anyway encouraging to see Richarlison and Gray link up well.

 

I hope I've made my assessment of Amrabat fairly on watching him the whole of last season and the start of this. He is of course capable of some good play but his stats must highlight his lack of enough telling passes or indeed goals. He often fails to look up to see an obviously pass, a poor man's Stuart Scullion.

 

Amrabat will be a very rich man playing in the EPL .plus there is no way he could be compared to the great Stuart

 

http://www.hertfordshiremercury.co....rnemouth-win/story-30488757-detail/story.html

Some great tweets here...

and click on this gif on the link....

 

As I indicated Scullion was a much superior player but he could have been even better if had raised his head up a bit more to see the simple pass. Amrabat obviously has ability, similar to Jurado, but does not possess an end product, Silva will have noticed.

 

I'm sure what Arter did is a bookable offence - perhaps our resident ref Fez could confirm that? Chalobah needs to brush up on his accents - Arter's was the only Irish accent on the pitch.

Cook certainly should have been booked - and would have been off for two yellows. I think Afobe got off lightly too for his blatant attempt to get Kiko carded - falling over & clutching his face when there hadn't been any contact at all.

And yes, Rinaldi did score at Blackburn. One of only 13 away goals in that dreadful season.

 

They said on MOTD it would have been a free kick for us at least.

I remember under Lewington we only scored about 19 goals away from home and 7 of those were in one game!

 

Indirect free kick and yellow card. Law 12.

 

To elaborate it comes under "any other offence not mentioned in the LotG for which a caution is sanctioned".
The caution is for unsporting behaviour: verbally distracting an opponent at the restart or during play.

Poor application of the law from Roger East. The assessor will be having words for sure.

 

I have never before seen such a blatant piece of dishonesty in a professional game as exhibited by Arter today. Considering all the sympathy extended to him regarding his family issues, it is so disheartening to see what is essentially cheating. I do hope (not because it's against us) that some retrospective action is taken. Otherwise it will creep into the game. I thought Chalobah Doucoure and Cleverley were immense, made B'muff look weary.
All that said, what an encouraging performance, overseen by a head coach who really has a grip on things.
COYH

 

Well we've waited some time for that beauty of a result. Was on the motorway in Spain driving back to Malaga airport trying to concentrate on the road as the goals went in! Back home now and looking forward to my first game of the season next week with a load of optimism (I know that can be dangerous though!)