Rumour has it that the locals are walking around Bournemouth at the moment holding on to each other,or to walls or on to any available fence or hedge.......because they can't cope with the altitude that their football team has reached, pinching each other also to try and wake up from this dream that they think they are having........ok I'm fibbing a little there....but I bet it isn't far off the truth. Some of you will remember me saying that I was going down the Valley with my son and his two youngsters to see what this Bournemouth was all about.....so may I just bore you all for awhile....of course you don't have to endure this if you don't want to, but as an Argyle supporter you might be interested in the atmosphere that was present and link it to the desire we have to reach the promised land ourselves one day. We arrived early and wandered around as you do......with 4000 Cherry fans around you could not be touched by the mood and the atmosphere that they brought to the match.....they were all walking on cloud nine.....and it was a real party feeling that they brought having reach the Premiership mid-week beating Bolton 3-0 with ease. The Jimmy Seed away stand was rocking with red and black....plus a whole upper section of the mainstand.......the game kicked off late because of the groundstaff failing to burst the hundreds of red and black balloons that were blowing in the wind across the pitch......everytime when it looked as if they had succeeded ,another fifty ballons appeared etc etc. Bournemouth certainly didn't look tense in anyway seeing the league winners Trophy still could be won.They started at an high tempo and blew Charlton away,going 2-0 up in the first twelve minutes. Their passing and movement was top quality quite often leaving Charlton players sitting on their bottoms. Matt Ritchie on the right wing was all over the place and was certainly using new Duracell batteries compared with cheap 99p Store ones that Charlton where using. In the tenth minute he received the ball and cut inside and placed the ball into the far corner off the inside of the post.....and two minutes late Bournemouth's harassing and chasing in the Charlton penalty area brought a defensive mistake and the ball was slammed in the net...2-0......21000 at the game but only 4000 singing.......it looked possibly a 6-0 beating on the cards....but Charlton dug in and only gave one more away near the end.....Ritchie again. About this time Watford who had been winning 1-0 (enough to win the title) gave a goal away in injury time......and the Bournemouth fans got wind of it ....and went bananas......truelly a magic moment that made our 7th place in the basement league seem totally irrelevent, The whistle went soon after and the Bournemouth players collapsed to the ground finding it hard to believe that they were the Championships champions. Remember in 2008 Bournemouth where looking liquidation square in the face and in 2009 they where one game away from dropping out of the league. Not many left the ground at the end.......a platform was built with the usual arch over it and the Trophy and medals were presented......I assume that they had all the same equipment at Watford,plus a Trophy and medals and where seconds away from assembling it all at Vicarage Road ? I just sat there soaking up the atmosphere and thought is this what it would be like if Argyle did the same......of course you would of experienced something similar when Newcastle got promoted back to the top league....the difference of course would of been that the Toon fans would have been returning to where they belonged.....Bournemouth fans where of course going into the unknown never ever expecting this a few years back. My Grand-Daughter who is six left the ground quite chuffed....with hundreds of balloons blowing around...she had managed too acquire five....but the black ones all burst before we went home leaving her with two red ones.....she was still chuffed. Dream on Greens it might happen to us one day....remember they where facing liquidation 7yrs ago and nearly dropped out of the league 6yrs ago.....so keep believing. PS....they had four players who scored more than 14 goals each...and another four who scored more than 5 goals each.....plus all the other scorers they reached a total of 98 goals.
Good reading, thanks plym.. Glad you all enjoyed the day out.. i can see us doing a similar thing in the future!
Of course they were on cloud nine they were already up whatever happened. I saw the local news today and the pictures of the open top bus through Bournemouth were on there. Their beach was full of people with some estimate of around 100,000 out to sing the teams praises. Where did they all suddenly come from? The same place that 30,000 came from the last time Plymouth went to Wembley is where. Out of the woodwork. Those pictures and that atmosphere would almost certainly be present for any club who made it. How many Janners would turn out if it was us? I think it's great what Bournemouth have done this season and wish them every success where they are going. However, it's a different world up there and they will do well to stay there more than one season. Same would apply to us if it ever happened. If you've won then it isn't hard to create a great atmosphere. The trip back from Wembley last time was very memorable for all the honking horns and green scarves and service station stops. Even the walk home from Home Park around midnight was decent.
Bournemouth have a population of roughly 180,000.....if you included the larger area from Poole in the west to Christchurch in the east.....you can ratchet that up to about 400,000.......they have a thriving Airport at Hurn, plus a good rail link to London.....plus a very good holiday business of roughly 5 million visitors along that coast each year......I bet the economy will benefit a lot even if they only stay a year in the Premiership. Two players have been around since the black times...not many have proven careers beyond non-league and lower league football accept.....Kermorgant,Boruc,Kenwyne Jones & Gosling.....a team that play good football,works hard & have very good set moves....with no real prima-donna stars at all....one player who impressed was Matt Ritchie a winger who was everywhere...scored two goals....they played like they were the home team ....blew Charlton away in 12 minutes. PS......I forgot to mention their top scorer.....Callum Wilson who has scored over twenty goals and cost them about £3million.....and wears the No13 on his back.
I've said this before plym but will say it again. In my book the so called promised land isn't all it's cracked up to be for the supporter. Yes great to see your club make it even if it's just once in a lifetime. That's the plus. The minus is that you know you aren't going to win that league before you even start. That isn't true of the other leagues where almost anyone could. You are going to get sold out as fodder for the big boys. You are going to be taken over by TV and your matches will be everywhere but on a Saturday afternoon for most of the season. In fact as a fan you are going to be at the bottom of the pile for consideration. The price is likely to rise to see your team lose more often than win. The supporters are better in the lower leagues being a tad more genuine in the main. I'm just not sure anymore that I would want to see Argyle get there.
Yes sensible I understand what your saying and I cannot really disagree with your reasoning......but just to achieve it once is the desire of the majority of fans. The Premiership has been rather flat this year.....as you know Chelsea won it last weekend and the consensus was that it was a disappointing year and that Chelsea were a boring team. The opposition for the title were not really up to it....Man C had no consistency,question mark against there manager being up for it, Man U in the top four with a poor team still trying to consolidate since the end of the Ferguson reign, Arsenal just missing what's required to challenge for the title, Spurs have flattered to deceive,Southampton and Swansea have done well but would have surprised everyone if they had made the top four,Liverpool have failed to impress with some unrest in their team.....and Everton have had their worst season for years......the relegation area includes the clubs we could of guessed in August.....in general a poor season and question marks over the Premiership being the best league in Europe. Yet they have just agreed a deal that will make the tea lady at each club nearly millionaires as well as the pampered diving prima-donna's who have all done acting and diving degrees to "perfect" their art......oh for more of that real money to syphon down to the lower leagues. But as I said sensible.....most clubs still want to smell the flowers up there just once.....and the fans also, thou they will not recognize their team once they have been touched by Sky etc....and their pots of gold.....and will those original fans ...who have watched there team for decades on cold and miserable Tuesday nights in places like Carlisle or Hartlepool be able to afford the prices and wonder why their pasties have been replaced with prawn sandwiches. I expect it's the old saying "be careful what you wish for"......but even then sensible.....just to reach the tainted "promised land" just once before we pop our clogs would be nice...................................it would certainly get up the noses of that team up the road.
