Even the most optimistic amongst the Bristol City faithful, would have expected not to get too much from an away trip to Bournemouth’s Vitality Stadium. The Cherries sit second in the Championship and you only had to look at some of the players on their bench - Gary Cahill, Todd Cantwell, Jamal Lowe, Ben Pearson and Siriki Dembele - to recognise the difference in quality of player between the two sides.
There has been a fair bit of discussions on forums this week around the fairness of parachute payments and Saturday for me emphasised just how uneven the playing field is for those with payments and those without. That’s not making excuses and it isn’t all about that, but there can be little doubt and the statistics support the fact that those that come down from the Premier League and receive payments for a three-year period have an unfair advantage.
City shocked their hosts by taking an early lead through Rob Atkinson’s header from a good corner delivery from Matty James and from that point on for the majority of the half, Nigel Pearson’s side were forced to defend. Bournemouth were just so comfortable on the ball and always seemed to have runners and options.
City defended manfully but where we let ourselves down and it’s a reoccurring theme, was the constant ease that we turned over possession. We defended our goal well; we would win the ball back and break away but would then give the ball away with a sloppy pass or by making the wrong option.
I counted five times in the first half where we have a break away two on two or three and three and didn’t take advantage of it. As a result, we were constantly on the back foot.
Let me say from the off that Bournemouth are a class side. They have quality all over the pitch and for me in Lewis Cook they had the best player on show. Cook picked the ball up all over the field and would play simple yet effective passes, and always forward-thinking.
Of course, it helps when you have the quality of player that the Cherries have in Philip Billing and Jefferson Lerma alongside Cook. Our midfield was overrun and just couldn’t cope. In that first half, Bournemouth had made 358 passes to our 95.
It did look like we had weathered the storm, with Robbie Cundy in particular, for me, impressing at the back. Cundy made one vital tackle which was brilliantly timed. I really like the look of him and hope that the club look to keep him for next season.
Just when it looked as though we may get to half-time with a lead we conceded. We couldn’t clear the ball from the edge of the area far enough and one insightful pass found Jordan Zemura who played in a ball across the box and Dominic Solanke’s first-time effort was too much for Dan Bentley. City had defended so well but you couldn’t deny that Bournemouth deserved the equaliser.
The second-half started in much the same vein with Scott Parker's side on top and that man Cook was the player to give Bournemouth the lead. It was sloppy from City, we didn’t close Cook down and he was allowed to shoot from distance and both Alex Scott (I think) and Andi Weimann couldn’t get a block in or chose to leave the ball and this seemed to block Dan Bentley's line of vision and he was beaten low into the corner.
Whilst there was a gulf in class when on the ball, you couldn’t fault the effort that the Robins were putting in and we stayed in the game. There are many ways to lose a game but when you see your side giving it all in terms of effort, you aren’t quite as despondent.
We should have had a penalty when Chris Martin was clearly fouled by former City youngster Lloyd Kelly and Martin also had a close range shot well saved by Cherries keeper Mark Travers.
In fairness to Pearson he changed the shape of the side and introduced Han-Noah Massengo, whose energy and willingness on the ball saw City have their best period of the game. Unfortunately, another moment of class from Bournemouth and Dembele put the game beyond City.
There was time for a late Andi Weimann goal, his 19th of the season after a really good move started by the Austrian, who fed the ball out wide to Tommy Conway and the substitute did superbly to time his run and the ball across for a simple tap-in.
At the final whistle, the general feeling was that we had been beaten by the better side but at least put in the effort to stay in the game and on another day with a little more luck may have taken something from the game. However, make no mistake Bournemouth were worthy winners.
Before the game we visited a bar in Boscombe, and I overheard one of the staff saying that she was from Bristol and studying in Bournemouth. I also heard her say that she went to Bedminster Down school, which was the school that I went to, although many years before her.
When I got talking to her, it turned out that not only did we go to the same school, but Beth and her brother used to actually sit next to me in the Atyeo Stand some 10+ years ago. What a small world.
Our 3 Peaps In A Podcast ratings were: Daniel Bentley 5, Jay Dasilva 6 *MotM, Cameron Pring 5, Robbie Cundy 6, Timm Klose 5, Rob Atkinson 6, Matty James 5, Alex Scott 5, Andi Weimann 5, Nahki Wells 5, Chris Martin 5. A team average of 5.27 for the game. For Nige it’s 5. The current team average for the season is 5.86 with an expected performance rating of 6.
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