Football

[richw]

Bournemouth will be up if they win their game in hand, albeit not officially as if they win they will have at least +17 goal difference advantage over Middlesbrough and 3 points ahead.

 

[craig87034]

Congratulations to Barnet for promotion to the football league another London derby and a new ground to scratch with the wombles next year

 

[SS4]

We played well but were ultimately let down by defensive mistakes and not turning up until the second half. Didn't help that the ref was a right homer

 

[CC 72100]

Didn't help that the ref was a right homer

You say that, but my gut reaction was that the pull on Aguero in the box should have been a City penalty.

A shame to come away from that with nothing, especially given a second half that showed effort and an attitude that, in my limited experience, wasn't there under Lambert.

 

[balne-wonderer]

Well, that was our 12th! yes, 12th! penalty 'conceded' this season, I believe that's the most in the entire football league...........and the FL aren't doing a job on Leeds are they? Of course not.....

Still, we beat Wednesday who dived and cheated their way through afternoon. Regular chorus's of "Istanbul, Istanbul" and "always look out for for Turks carrying knives" were drowned out by superb away support today. We outsung them, we outplayed them and we were the better fans.

Pride restored, great away day. MOT.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Bournemouth will be up if they win their game in hand, albeit not officially as if they win they will have at least +17 goal difference advantage over Middlesbrough and 3 points ahead.

A pity that their fans will have to wait for that result until Monday evening.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Well, that was our 12th! yes, 12th! penalty 'conceded' this season, I believe that's the most in the entire football league...........and the FL aren't doing a job on Leeds are they? Of course not.....

Only 12 penalties conceded...your defence must be getting soft these days if they can only concede 12 between the whole lot of them.

At the age of 71 (a year older than I), Norman Hunter would certainly despair of such Elland Road defensive softness, as he reckoned that his tackling back in the penalty area when he was in his prime was worth 50 penalties conceded a season... (Of course, in those heady days, football was "a man's game").

 

[Antman]

Bournemouth will be up if they win their game in hand, albeit not officially as if they win they will have at least +17 goal difference advantage over Middlesbrough and 3 points ahead.

Seems unfair that they've got to wait until Monday but Norwich drawing and Middlesbrough losing were unexpected bonuses, even if they don't win on Monday they've got another chance at Charlton...........almost there!

 

[les.]

Nice trip to Eastleigh on Thursday night for me. Hopefully this will be our year.

 

[richw]

Seems unfair that they've got to wait until Monday but Norwich drawing and Middlesbrough losing were unexpected bonuses, even if they don't win on Monday they've got another chance at Charlton...........almost there!

Will Bournemouth be the most southerly premier league team ever if they succeed?

 

[Amberley54]

Nice trip to Eastleigh on Thursday night for me. Hopefully this will be our year.

Good luck from a Macc Town fan.

Would miss the visits of the Cod Army and the excellent fish& chip shop next to Blundell Park though.

 

[richw]

Bournemouth are effectively promoted, beat Bolton 3-0.
They are 3 points above but crucially 19 goal difference.
Middlesbrough would need to turn 19 goal difference and Bournemouth lose to stop Bournemouth being promoted now

 

[Kite159]

Bournemouth have made it to the top flight (bar a 20 goal turnaround)

A day to the seaside for many teams to come next year

 

[richw]

Bournemouth have made it to the top flight (bar a 20 goal turnaround)

A day to the seaside for many teams to come next year

southampton Bournemouth will create a pair of decent fixtures.
Swansea and Bournemouth showing league 2 how it's done.

Is Eddie Howe the first manager to take a team from bottom of tier 4 to the premier league?

 

[les.]

Amazing achievement by Bournemouth really. It was only 6 years ago when we went down there late on in the season with both teams in danger of relegation to The Conference. We both stayed up that season (just). We both got out of League 2 the following season, in opposite directions.

I know they have a multi-millionaire owner now but to be fair to them they haven't really got any "big names" in their team.

Final League 2 table 2008/09

 

[DarloRich]

Amazing achievement by Bournemouth really. It was only 6 years ago when we went down there late on in the season with both teams in danger of relegation to The Conference. We both stayed up that season (just). We both got out of League 2 the following season, in opposite directions.

I know they have a multi-millionaire owner now but to be fair to them they haven't really got any "big names" in their team.

Final League 2 table 2008/09

Everything went wrong for Darlo hereafter.

We were docked 10 in February of that season points when one of our lovely former owners put us into administration and that cost us the play offs. The lovely fomrmer owner then reduced his investment starting the downward spiral to where we are now.

That is a warning for Bournemouth, and many others. What happens when your lovely current owner becomes a not so lovely former owner?

As for Darlo this season: We lost out on the Evo Stick North one championship to Class of 92 funded Salford so we have a play off game at home to Spennymoor on Wednesday.

 

[Butts]

Bournemouth are effectively promoted, beat Bolton 3-0.
They are 3 points above but crucially 19 goal difference.
Middlesbrough would need to turn 19 goal difference and Bournemouth lose to stop Bournemouth being promoted now

Standby for a bit of "Grandstanding" by BB21 - deserved for once

 

[richw]

Standby for a bit of "Grandstanding" by BB21 - deserved for once

I've been looking for that since last night. Doesn't seem forthcoming yet.

 

[Donny Dave]

Standby for a bit of "Grandstanding" by BB21 - deserved for once

I've been looking for that since last night. Doesn't seem forthcoming yet.

Perhaps he went out celebrating last night, and hasn't quite recovered yet, not that I can blame him.

 

[balne-wonderer]

Well done to Bournemouth, the best and most consistent team over the season. I mean, they couldn't beat the mighty Leeds home or away even with an extra 2 men but still, a great achievement none the less.

I had a fantastic time down at Bournemouth earlier in the season so from a selfish point of view i'd rather them have stayed in the Championship. Bournemouth away for Burnley away doesn't seem like a fair swap

The big task now is building for next season, if they buy smart then there is no reason why they can't stay in the PL and consolidate.

I don't think any Championship fan could argue with Watford and Bournemouth being the promoted teams really.

 

[Antman]

Well done to Bournemouth, the best and most consistent team over the season. I mean, they couldn't beat the mighty Leeds home or away even with an extra 2 men but still, a great achievement none the less.

I had a fantastic time down at Bournemouth earlier in the season so from a selfish point of view i'd rather them have stayed in the Championship. Bournemouth away for Burnley away doesn't seem like a fair swap

The big task now is building for next season, if they buy smart then there is no reason why they can't stay in the PL and consolidate.

I don't think any Championship fan could argue with Watford and Bournemouth being the promoted teams really.

Good luck to Bournemouth and Watford next season and it would be great if Brentford could join them via the play offs.

 

[Y961 XBU]

Bolton have really had a bad season, the amount of Injured players has been very high (at times there where more than 10 Players Injured!)

Looking forward to next Season as i think things will be a bit different with Neil Lennon starting the season plus him also saying he is going to have a major clear out of all the dead wood in the team and bring in new players

 

[les.]

Good luck from a Macc Town fan.

Would miss the visits of the Cod Army and the excellent fish& chip shop next to Blundell Park though.

Cheers. Your lads were right up there until the end. If you'd grabbed a winner on Saturday you'd have taken FGR's place in the play-offs. It's going to be a tense nervous time as although we beat Eastleigh twice during the season, that all goes out the window now and there wasn't more than a 1 goal margin in any of the games between the 4 play-off teams.

As for the fish 'n' chips, for the really good stuff you need to be in Cleethorpes Market Place rather than the chippys near the ground but just remember that it's haddock in these parts not cod.

 

[WelshBluebird]

Good luck to Bournemouth and Watford next season and it would be great if Brentford could join them via the play offs.

I do wonder how they will manage in terms of crowds and the stadia.
Both can only hold around 12k, and certainly Brentford still have terracing which will presumably have to be replaced with temporary seating if they are promoted, further reducing capacity.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

I believe Brentford will have to groundshare should they achieve promotion, it falls well short of many requirements, and with them moving in time for the 2016-17 (I think) season anyway there's no point in doing any work on Griffin Park.

 

[bb21]

Just got back.

Tinpot and proud, fellas, tinpot and proud.

Fair dos to several teams who took maximum points off us this season. We would have had a far less nerve-wrecking journey had we not thrown away all those points in leading positions, but I wouldn't swap it for any other experience. We might only stay up for one year but all the lows in the past were worth this one moment.

Ironically in Eddie's first game in charge we lost away at Darlo. I would never have dreamed we would be making a charge for the top division as we watched the team make a huge step towards league safety at the Deva Stadium later that year.

The fight for match tickets will be fun (not) next season, but still, tinpot and very proud at the moment.

If anyone want to see hundreds, if not thousands of fully grown men in tears, just go to one of these football matches. That was freakishly emotional.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Swansea and Bournemouth showing league 2 how it's done.

It's amazing what you can achieve when you're owned by a secretive Russian oligarch who's bankrolling your losses (over £14m this season, for instance).

I don't say that to be snarky, either. Seriously well done to Bournemouth. It's easy to spend the money, but not so easy to spend it on real quality. But, like most teams who go up (including Bradford when we went up in 1999 after splurging out to achieve it), they're not quite the plucky underdog they're being portrayed to be.

They show a wider issue that needs fixing though: that the finances in the Championship are ludicrous, and unsustainably so.

Is Eddie Howe the first manager to take a team from bottom of tier 4 to the premier league?

Depends if you take his sabbatical with Burnley into account or not

 

[richw]

It's amazing what you can achieve when you're owned by a secretive Russian oligarch who's bankrolling your losses (over £14m this season, for instance).

I don't say that to be snarky, either. Seriously well done to Bournemouth. It's easy to spend the money, but not so easy to spend it on real quality. But, like most teams who go up (including Bradford when we went up in 1999 after splurging out to achieve it), they're not quite the plucky underdog they're being portrayed to be.

They show a wider issue that needs fixing though: that the finances in the Championship are ludicrous, and unsustainably so.

A £15m investment by a Russian is small change compared to other clubs investment from their owners

Depends if you take his sabbatical with Burnley into account or not

He came back to them in a lower position than he left them, so I guess the sabbatical can be discounted.

 

[DarloRich]

Ironically in Eddie's first game in charge we lost away at Darlo. I would never have dreamed we would be making a charge for the top division as we watched the team make a huge step towards league safety at the Deva Stadium later that year.

I know i was there Saturday 3rd January 2009 Darlington 2 - Bournmouth 1

Bournemouth led through a Holland goal in the first half before Darlo equalised through Pawal Abbot on 83 minutes before Rob Purdie snatched 3 points for the Quakers with a stoppage time penalty in front of 2571 at the (then named) Balfour Webnet Darlington Arena.

We had a good team that year, shafted by an (alleged) dodgy owner and it was the start of the decline.

Bournemouth have gone a long way since. Enjoy it.

BTW - Brett Pitman played that day for your lot

 

[richw]

Hull 1 Liverpool 0 this evening.
Drags Newcastle in further. When I looked at the fixtures I guessed Hull wouldn't catch Newcastle, assuming this would be a Liverpool win.

 

[bb21]

A £15m investment by a Russian is small change compared to other clubs investment from their owners

I think someone on the Bournemouth forum calculated the investment by Demin to total £27m since he got involved. Didn't do too badly considering that he will now likely get all of it back plus more. No wonder he was completely inebriated yesterday.

With regard to that £15m "loss" in our promotion season from League One, it was apparently an accounting trick. What happened is that as it was the last year before FFP kicked in, the club quite cleverly/sneakily (depending on your perspective) accounted for large losses that year so that it made the job much easier to comply with FFP for a few years after that. I know there will always be people who question our finances, but the fact that Lewis Grabban's money cancelled out Calum Wilson's fees, and that we then had a windfall from Lallana's sale to Liverpool played a large part in us passing FFP last year, and will this year too.

Of course we have spent money, contrary to what some of the press would have you believe, but it is still small change compared to many other sides in the second tier, because without some financial backing it would be almost impossible to compete with many teams in the Championship, or even in League One. The previous team Eddie built in League One was completely decimated to raise funds for the day-to-day running of the club. But crucially in terms of net transfer costs, we just about break even in the last few years (or made a small profit depending on which figures you use). I think what annoyed a lot of our supporters is the notion by some that just because we spent some money, we somehow "bought" success. All Bournemouth supporters are indebted to Maxim and his pals for bringing this club success, but they are certainly not the most crucial ingredient in all this. Plenty of clubs spend big and fail. You do have to spend wisely, and that is what Eddie did so well.