Take another bow – The fella that got Bournemouth relegated

I wrote an article for the Mag last season, where I admitted to liking the taste of humble pie, having not been terribly enamoured when Eddie Howe took up the reigns and having presided over a bad run of form going into January.

In fact, as I said at the time, I thought we were down after we allowed Watford a late equaliser in the home league fixture. immediately after the Cambridge FA Cup debacle.

Some might say, even the beginning of this season wasn’t terribly good. After winning our opening fixture, patiently breaking down a stubborn but very average Nottingham Forest side, we didn’t win any of our next six games. Okay, VAR was definitely not our friend on more than one occasion, but with injuries to key players, there was pessimism in some quarters.

Having been on the humble pie trail earlier, I wasn’t getting too anxious. We had, after all, only lost at LiVARpool, Alexander Isak being denied an all important second goal before the Scousers equalised and then somehow contrived to steal a winner, a full three minutes past the 95 that the fourth official had advised the ref to play.

We had also played Man City off the park and it says an awful lot about the upturn in our fortunes since Eddie’s arrival, that many of us were disappointed not to have beaten Guardiola’s team.

So it was, we visited Craven Cottage on 11 October and plundered all three points with a fabulous 4-1 win. Although Miggy had scored against City, he got a brace down by the Thames and has continued his fine goalscoring form thereafter, with this Eddie Howe team winning six of its next seven as we finished up before the World Cup on 12 November with a win against Chelsea. So, including Fulham and the draws against Palace and Bournemouth, a ten game unbeaten run stretching back to August.

And here’s the thing. After beating Chelsea with that wonderful Joe Willock effort, I think I was in the minority when the question arose as to whether the enforced break was a good thing or not. “Momentum is everything”, I proclaimed, expressing my unease about how I felt the World Cup had come at a bad time for us.

Not so, it would seem.

After a full strength side had put Bournemouth to the sword in the League Cup, we went to Leicester on boxing day, they themselves on a decent run and a potential banana skin of the highest magnitude. What happened? Well, as we know, the game as a contest was just about over after seven minutes and never in doubt just after the half hour mark.

I hope I’m not putting a jinx on the Leeds match but I think we’ll enter 2023 with another three points. By the end of next month, we could also be looking forward to a trip to Wembley.

Take another bow, the fella that got Bournemouth relegated. HTL.