Crewe Alexandra Reaction - Jan 14

After the 2-0 defeat at Gresty Road, Kevin Bond was quoted on BBC Radio Solent as saying: "I've got to be honest, I think if we'd had their front two we would have won the game. I have seen them twice in the last week and was really impressed with them on both occasions. They looked lively and you could never never ever switch off for a second. They were a constant threat. They were always pulling short, coming away and going long. They have got that movement, sharpness and they are quick. I think that that was the difference. It's and old saying - you're only as good as your front men but when you look at Crewe and they keep on producing some terrific front men and it makes the difference for them. In fairness we have got a couple of young boys who have still got all their developing to do and Fletch who as a target does great for you but obviously hasn't got that movement. We got 25 balls into the box in the second half and we hardly got on the end of anything. And that was the difference, we never troubled the goalkeeper nearly enough. We got into loads of good positions, got loads of balls into the box but didn't get any end product. The second goal killed us. At 1-0 you are always bang in there and the longer the game went on the more I felt that we could put them under pressure and hopefully get an equaliser. But the second goal, which was a poor goal to give away, killed the game and made it extremely difficult for us. But in fairness the lads battled away and I thought we played well second half, we had an awful lot of the ball but not enough end product for the amounts of balls that went into the box".

BBC Radio Solent summariser for Cherries matches was quoted after he match as saying: "I think Kevin tried something a little bit different today working with the two big lads upfront. Vokes could exploit behind the back but it didn't quite payoff and of course at the other end we had the two Crewe strikers - one of the best pairings I've seen this season. They worked together and really got stuck into us. Both boys ended up scoring goals. It's been a tough old day for us, we huffed and puffed and put Crewe under a little bit of pressure towards the end of the game but I didn't think we were good enough today".

For Crewe Alexandra, their manager, Dario Gradi, was quoted as saying: "It was a hard game. They are all hard games but we really could have been three goals up in the opening 20 minutes. It was nice to get a clean sheet. I always feel we are decent but we can't stop letting in goals. They hit a million crosses in and we dealt with them all pretty well. We had to beat Bournemouth because they are below us in the league. We had to get some points on the board and it was a half decent performance from us. We didn't really give them a clear-cut chance. It was Julien Baudet's best game for us and with Billy Jones playing well alongside him we are looking a bit more solid".