AFCB v Morecambe preview
AFCB v Morecambe @ Christie Park. Saturday 12th December.
Well we started to win at home again! Ok so it wasn’t particularly pretty but to be honest I don’t care, just for once things went our way and we won with a lucky goal. I guess after about 5 mins into the game we all knew it wasn’t going to be a classic and it had that 1st one to get a goal would win it feel to it. Thankfully lady luck was with us and despite it being a Shrews payer to score, the goal and 3 points were ours – good enough for me!
Now to all of you saying how the slide has started and that we started off well but have tapered off yadda yadda then here for you is a superb little gem from our resident statto Keith Brewer. If we manage a win this coming Saturday we will have 43 points from 21 games, which would be our best start EVER after 21 games in our history (some 80 years or more!). The best we have achieved from our first 21 games is 42 points on 3 separate occasions – 68/69 when we finished 4th, 71/72 when we finished 3rd and 86/87 when we won the league. Thank you Keith for that info! Additionally only Newcastle and Leeds have conceded less goals than us this season (thanks combat Johnny). With all that in mind we are obviously rubbish!!! *rollseyes*
Then we also need to factor in how easy Eddie has had it since taking over the helm. The ever present M.Bargo, the only “addition” to the squad, and at no time during this season have we had less than 3 1st teamers on the long term injury list, with a squad of 19 professionals that therefore means at no time has Eddie had more than 16 to choose from (not including of course the lovely Jace and our brilliant youth teamers and academy players who have willingly put themselves on the line for us) and also not taking into account the short term injuries that seem to have dogged us. It's all too easy to forget that Liam Feeney for one has been carrying an injury now for at least 2 months and really should not be playing, he is not alone in playing on with bumps, bruises and injuries that won't fully heal without rest. Of course they hurting and are tired and at times it shows but surely us diehards can forgive them that, the casuals won't, but we should. My final gripe of the day is that certainly in relation to the last 3 home games it can't be easy playing footie in a swamp can it? I can't remember the last time it didn't rain and the pitch didn’t look like a bog! It’s no wonder we are rubbish at taking penalties, Eddie and Jace have been having to teach the boys to swim just to get them through 90 mins of swamp play
Still with the now forecast cold snap on the way the swamp may turn into an ice rink, that’ll be fun won’t it – AFCB on ice – WooT!!
UTCIAD
Our Opponents:
Morecambe currently sit 10th in the table on 30 points. They are another team with a very impressive home record, 4 wins, 5 draws and only 1 defeat. It’s a 600 mile round trip – deep joy! They are currently very much an in form team having won their last 4 games overall and 6 games in the league. Their last defeat in the league was on 24th October when they lost 4-2 against Northampton. Since that date they have lost to Carlisle in an FA cup replay and won against Lincoln (h), Crewe(a), Cheltenham(h), Darlington(a), Bury(h) and Port Vale(a). Let’s stop that run they are on and create a little history for ourselves at the same time!!
Player to watch: Phil Jevons
Currently at Morecambe on loan from Huddersfield and the man is quite simply a goal machine having scored 12 goals in 19 league games and 1 goal in 2 cup games. That is a very impressive record by anyone’s standards.
Cherries News:
Before we come to the depressing injuries news we have yet another new dad to congratulate! Congratulations to Ryan Garry and his girlfriend Carla on the birth of their son Quincy last Thursday. That’s it now babywise until next April!
Now the injury news – actually I think the uninjured list is shorter than the injured one so maybe I should focus on that instead! Following his recent ankle injury Jal limped off with a calf strain last week and is a doubt for Saturday. After the game last week he remained upbeat and said he felt he would be back this week but to be honest he probably came back too soon before, leading us to lose him again. Get well soon Shwan but don’t rush back this time, yes you are vital but we can and will cope without you for a couple of games. The positive in that is Dan Thomas is ready and able to step in to deputise. Personally I thought he looked much stronger and more comfortable when he came on as a sub last week and being part of a winning team will have done the boy a heap of good. I know both Mossy and Shwan hold him in high regard and that’s good enough for me to put my faith in him to deputise adequately. Mossy will continue to work hard with him to prepare him for his full league debut if needs be.
Next up Anton Robinson has a back strain. Hideous things back injuries and goodness only knows when that will heal up, hopefully he will be there on Saturday but you just don’t know with these things. Joining him on hopefully the short termer couch in Steve Hard’s rather too busy treatment room is fellow midfielder Sammy Igoe with a groin strain. Of the long termers Scotty Guyett is the only one nearing a return but even that’s at least a couple of weeks away yet. Coops rehab is going well but he’s still at least 6 weeks away from any form of return and Moles well we just don’t know until that boot thingy is removed in a couple of weeks. All being well we could see him back in around a month – 6 weeks but if he needs an op then our chances of seeing him in a cherries shirt again this season are pretty bleak.
So in summary absolutely no selection headache for Eddie this week as he has a whopping 13 players to chose his starting 11 from!! Jace will no doubt be dusting off his boots again ready for a spot on the bench. The local schools must love it though because all of the academy players must be working really hard at school and doing their homework etc just in case permission is sought for them to bench warm! Well done Bradders for having the foresight to get his 5th booking/1 match suspension in a few weeks back while we had enough players to cover the bench as well as the pitch
Head to Head:
Over the years we have met Morecambe a total of 2 times. Yep that’s it just twice, last season in the league!! We drew 0-0 at DC, a good result at the time under he of nice eyes leadership! Then we gave them a decent 4-0 drubbing at Christie Park around the time Eddie lost his sanity and accepted the manager’s job proper as opposed to being the caretaker. Goals from Ward, Feeney and a brace from Chicken completing the rout.
Edited to add: It has been pointed out to me that I was a bit dyslexic when writing this today - the 4-0 win over Morecambe was on the 2nd day of the 5th month not the 5th day of the 2nd month.
Pfffft I blame the fact that a 5 is merely an upside down 2 looking in the mirror 
Stats courtesy of soccerbase.
Ref watch:
The ref for the game is Mr Steve Rushton from Staffordshire, with Jonathan Hunt (County Durham) and Robert Johnson (Merseyside) acting as his assistants. The Fourth Official is Peter Wright from Merseyside.
A new appointment to the National Group at the start of this season, following 2 seasons as a conference ref, this will be the first time we have met him as a referee. Let’s face it we all know it bugs me not being able to have an opinion on the ref! For my sanity his stats are semi edging towards scary – 29 yellow and 1 red in just 12 games (av 2.5 cards/game). Last season in the conference he dished out 37 yellow but 0 red in 18 games (a rather impressive 2.05 cards/game average) and the season before a very scary 17 yellow and 1 red in just 6 games. Statistically he looks quite reasonable.
As I can’t slate this week’s ref I’ll mention last weeks instead! Mr Graham has now moved from my ok list to actually I rather like list!! I got the chance to have a little chat with him before the game, and yes I behaved!! We actually chatted about the perils of the weather, lots of travelling, injuries and football in general. Nice man and a decent ref who in truth was a bit of a homer, which suits me when we are the home team LOL! I also had a chat with Andy Davies the lino who I do rather like as well. I asked him how it had felt to receive a standing ovation when coming on as a sub ref (he was the one that replaced the awful Jarnail Singh v Burton) and he laughed and said it was very surreal and a bit confusing but he had enjoyed it, knowing it was unlikely to happen again! He is one I would like to see promoted to the National Group next season. Lee Swabey the other lino last week was also one of the good ones. It’s always nice to have a decent team of officials, which at this level is all too rare. By the way the thud you just heard was NSM falling off his chair in shock about me complimenting a ref and linos LOL!! Hope you didn’t hurt yourself too bad Mark!
Match Prediction:
The bookies have Morecambe as 6/4 to win, 23/10 for a draw and 7/4 for an AFCB win.
Stats courtesy of Bet365
Next fixture:
21st December v Notts County @ DC in the league. Kick off 7.45pm. Set your VCR’s, DVD recorders or sky+ boxes before you set off for DC as we are live on sky that night. The bmb household will be living it up in the restaurant that night celebrating my 21st birthday
Well we started to win at home again! Ok so it wasn’t particularly pretty but to be honest I don’t care, just for once things went our way and we won with a lucky goal. I guess after about 5 mins into the game we all knew it wasn’t going to be a classic and it had that 1st one to get a goal would win it feel to it. Thankfully lady luck was with us and despite it being a Shrews payer to score, the goal and 3 points were ours – good enough for me!
Now to all of you saying how the slide has started and that we started off well but have tapered off yadda yadda then here for you is a superb little gem from our resident statto Keith Brewer. If we manage a win this coming Saturday we will have 43 points from 21 games, which would be our best start EVER after 21 games in our history (some 80 years or more!). The best we have achieved from our first 21 games is 42 points on 3 separate occasions – 68/69 when we finished 4th, 71/72 when we finished 3rd and 86/87 when we won the league. Thank you Keith for that info! Additionally only Newcastle and Leeds have conceded less goals than us this season (thanks combat Johnny). With all that in mind we are obviously rubbish!!! *rollseyes*
Then we also need to factor in how easy Eddie has had it since taking over the helm. The ever present M.Bargo, the only “addition” to the squad, and at no time during this season have we had less than 3 1st teamers on the long term injury list, with a squad of 19 professionals that therefore means at no time has Eddie had more than 16 to choose from (not including of course the lovely Jace and our brilliant youth teamers and academy players who have willingly put themselves on the line for us) and also not taking into account the short term injuries that seem to have dogged us. It's all too easy to forget that Liam Feeney for one has been carrying an injury now for at least 2 months and really should not be playing, he is not alone in playing on with bumps, bruises and injuries that won't fully heal without rest. Of course they hurting and are tired and at times it shows but surely us diehards can forgive them that, the casuals won't, but we should. My final gripe of the day is that certainly in relation to the last 3 home games it can't be easy playing footie in a swamp can it? I can't remember the last time it didn't rain and the pitch didn’t look like a bog! It’s no wonder we are rubbish at taking penalties, Eddie and Jace have been having to teach the boys to swim just to get them through 90 mins of swamp play
Still with the now forecast cold snap on the way the swamp may turn into an ice rink, that’ll be fun won’t it – AFCB on ice – WooT!!UTCIAD
Our Opponents:
Morecambe currently sit 10th in the table on 30 points. They are another team with a very impressive home record, 4 wins, 5 draws and only 1 defeat. It’s a 600 mile round trip – deep joy! They are currently very much an in form team having won their last 4 games overall and 6 games in the league. Their last defeat in the league was on 24th October when they lost 4-2 against Northampton. Since that date they have lost to Carlisle in an FA cup replay and won against Lincoln (h), Crewe(a), Cheltenham(h), Darlington(a), Bury(h) and Port Vale(a). Let’s stop that run they are on and create a little history for ourselves at the same time!!
Player to watch: Phil Jevons
Currently at Morecambe on loan from Huddersfield and the man is quite simply a goal machine having scored 12 goals in 19 league games and 1 goal in 2 cup games. That is a very impressive record by anyone’s standards.
Cherries News:
Before we come to the depressing injuries news we have yet another new dad to congratulate! Congratulations to Ryan Garry and his girlfriend Carla on the birth of their son Quincy last Thursday. That’s it now babywise until next April!
Now the injury news – actually I think the uninjured list is shorter than the injured one so maybe I should focus on that instead! Following his recent ankle injury Jal limped off with a calf strain last week and is a doubt for Saturday. After the game last week he remained upbeat and said he felt he would be back this week but to be honest he probably came back too soon before, leading us to lose him again. Get well soon Shwan but don’t rush back this time, yes you are vital but we can and will cope without you for a couple of games. The positive in that is Dan Thomas is ready and able to step in to deputise. Personally I thought he looked much stronger and more comfortable when he came on as a sub last week and being part of a winning team will have done the boy a heap of good. I know both Mossy and Shwan hold him in high regard and that’s good enough for me to put my faith in him to deputise adequately. Mossy will continue to work hard with him to prepare him for his full league debut if needs be.
Next up Anton Robinson has a back strain. Hideous things back injuries and goodness only knows when that will heal up, hopefully he will be there on Saturday but you just don’t know with these things. Joining him on hopefully the short termer couch in Steve Hard’s rather too busy treatment room is fellow midfielder Sammy Igoe with a groin strain. Of the long termers Scotty Guyett is the only one nearing a return but even that’s at least a couple of weeks away yet. Coops rehab is going well but he’s still at least 6 weeks away from any form of return and Moles well we just don’t know until that boot thingy is removed in a couple of weeks. All being well we could see him back in around a month – 6 weeks but if he needs an op then our chances of seeing him in a cherries shirt again this season are pretty bleak.
So in summary absolutely no selection headache for Eddie this week as he has a whopping 13 players to chose his starting 11 from!! Jace will no doubt be dusting off his boots again ready for a spot on the bench. The local schools must love it though because all of the academy players must be working really hard at school and doing their homework etc just in case permission is sought for them to bench warm! Well done Bradders for having the foresight to get his 5th booking/1 match suspension in a few weeks back while we had enough players to cover the bench as well as the pitch
Head to Head:
Over the years we have met Morecambe a total of 2 times. Yep that’s it just twice, last season in the league!! We drew 0-0 at DC, a good result at the time under he of nice eyes leadership! Then we gave them a decent 4-0 drubbing at Christie Park around the time Eddie lost his sanity and accepted the manager’s job proper as opposed to being the caretaker. Goals from Ward, Feeney and a brace from Chicken completing the rout.
Edited to add: It has been pointed out to me that I was a bit dyslexic when writing this today - the 4-0 win over Morecambe was on the 2nd day of the 5th month not the 5th day of the 2nd month.
Pfffft I blame the fact that a 5 is merely an upside down 2 looking in the mirror Stats courtesy of soccerbase.
Ref watch:
The ref for the game is Mr Steve Rushton from Staffordshire, with Jonathan Hunt (County Durham) and Robert Johnson (Merseyside) acting as his assistants. The Fourth Official is Peter Wright from Merseyside.
A new appointment to the National Group at the start of this season, following 2 seasons as a conference ref, this will be the first time we have met him as a referee. Let’s face it we all know it bugs me not being able to have an opinion on the ref! For my sanity his stats are semi edging towards scary – 29 yellow and 1 red in just 12 games (av 2.5 cards/game). Last season in the conference he dished out 37 yellow but 0 red in 18 games (a rather impressive 2.05 cards/game average) and the season before a very scary 17 yellow and 1 red in just 6 games. Statistically he looks quite reasonable.
As I can’t slate this week’s ref I’ll mention last weeks instead! Mr Graham has now moved from my ok list to actually I rather like list!! I got the chance to have a little chat with him before the game, and yes I behaved!! We actually chatted about the perils of the weather, lots of travelling, injuries and football in general. Nice man and a decent ref who in truth was a bit of a homer, which suits me when we are the home team LOL! I also had a chat with Andy Davies the lino who I do rather like as well. I asked him how it had felt to receive a standing ovation when coming on as a sub ref (he was the one that replaced the awful Jarnail Singh v Burton) and he laughed and said it was very surreal and a bit confusing but he had enjoyed it, knowing it was unlikely to happen again! He is one I would like to see promoted to the National Group next season. Lee Swabey the other lino last week was also one of the good ones. It’s always nice to have a decent team of officials, which at this level is all too rare. By the way the thud you just heard was NSM falling off his chair in shock about me complimenting a ref and linos LOL!! Hope you didn’t hurt yourself too bad Mark!
Match Prediction:
The bookies have Morecambe as 6/4 to win, 23/10 for a draw and 7/4 for an AFCB win.
Stats courtesy of Bet365
Next fixture:
21st December v Notts County @ DC in the league. Kick off 7.45pm. Set your VCR’s, DVD recorders or sky+ boxes before you set off for DC as we are live on sky that night. The bmb household will be living it up in the restaurant that night celebrating my 21st birthday
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