July 26 PRE-SEASON FRIENDLY AFC Bournemouth 0-1 Bristol City Att: 1486

Last updated : 26 July 2008 By Andy Burton
For some inexplicable reason, the ticket office were selling tickets for part of the East Stand, even though these seats were segregated for Bristol City fans. Those running the Club need to sort out lines of communication in time for the new season.

The match itself was an even affair from start to finish with both sides dominating the game at different stages. The opening period more or less belonged to City, but they were pegged back in to their own half as the Cherries found their feet and put together good spells of pressure. Two goal line clearances, one from Cooper, and one from Igoe, was the closest the Cherries came to opening their account on a sweltering afternoon.

In the Bournemouth goal, trialist Jalal was hardly tested by the City front line, dealing with everything with great ease - not that City had much to offer.

The second period was more of the same from both sides, but this time, there was the expected mass of substitutions as the Cherries made six changes during the second 45-minutes. As the youngsters came on one-by-one they all gave a good account of themselves even if there was clearly some lack of understanding between them at times.

City's winner came in the final 5 minutes when the towering Adebola got on the end of their only decent cross to head home from close range. Otherwise City did not pose much of a threat.

As a friendly, I suspect that manager Kevin Bond will be quietly satisfied with what he saw and will be hoping to sign some of the trialists as and when he's able to.

AFCB: Jalal, Bradbury, Cummings, Pearce, Shotton, Cooper, Bartley, Anderton, De Laet, Igoe, Pitman
Subs: Pryce, McQuoid (for De Laet, 52 mins), Rutherford (for Igoe, 59 mins), Richie (for Pitman, 64 mins), Ward (for Cooper, 72 mins), Robers (for Bartley, 80 mins), Hutchings (for Bradbury, 84 mins)
Andy Burton, Portsmouth