Reaction to the Shambolic performance against Port Vale

In the absense of any comment from Kevin Bond, it was left to Steve Claridge to speak after his 1000th League appearance. He was quoted on BBC Radio Solent as saying: "I could have thought of better scenarios but things can only get better. You have got to help yourself in these situations and I think after ten minutes when we were two-nil down it was always going to be an uphill struggle from there .......... I did some good things, did some not-so-good things but it was always going to be a case that that would happen simply because I have only had a couple of training sessions. I can only get better from there, I can reap the benefits of that and hopefully things will improve. I kept myself fit with this in mind so it is something I have thought about and it was good to be back. Whatever the result, it was nice to be involved. I am really pleased with the reception I got when we came out. Obviously it would have been nicer to ended in a different manner but it didn't and we have got to get on with it. When you get a performance like that I think everyone has got to have a look at themselves and see what went wrong, analyse it and see how they can put it right, how can they improve their game. You have got a mountain climb. You're two-nil down after ten minutes by your own making and obviously looking about and thinking 'what's happening here?'. Probably the gaffer would have liked more of a response than he got and I'm sure that there are lots of people who have got to have a look at themselves and address the situation".

For Port Vale, their manager, Martin Foyle was quoted after the match as saying: "We got off to a great start and kept tight control once we had gone ahead. We have had some poor results lately but now two wins in a week has given us a platform to build on. But there is no question of us relaxing. I shall be pushing the players even harder to keep improving, so this is only the beginning. I know what Kevin Bond is going through in the Bournemouth dressing room and I can feel sorry for him. Kevin has had to get in a lot of loan players and has some injuries to cope with, but I am sure he will get them out of trouble".