April 23 Yeovil Town 2-2 AFC Bournemouth Att: 6150

Last updated : 24 April 2011 By Andy Burton

Heads and brick walls spring to mind where this match was concerned - especially by the end of the match in the sweltering heat in Somerset.

The match opened brightly enough for the Cherries, winning a corner in the opening few minutes, and a couple of shots/headers going just wide of the target.

When Yeovil managed to get forward, their first corner came to nothing as well, but did allow the Cherries to break at pace to win a corner at the other end, which resulted in a great reflex save from the keeper to deny the Cherries the opening goal of the afternoon.

Obika, for the Glovers, managed somehow to miss the target when given a cler sight at goal. How he managed to miss the target only he will know, but it was a let off for the Cherries. Jalal was called in to action, being forced to block a shot himself in the 33rd minute.

The first half livened up enormously in the final few minutes when Arter was shown yellow, which for some reason prompted Yeovil's Huntington to join in for no apparent reason - raising his hands in to Danny Holland's face. Stupid and needless!

The second half started off in very lively fashion as Danny Ings let rip with a rasping shot just 15 seconds after the re-start, forcing the keeper in to a great save.

In the 49th minute Danny Ings was unfairly blocked by Huntington as he tried to cut in towards the penalty area. A second yellow card and red for Huntington - much to his disgust! but he had to go.

In the 55th minute, Cherries pressure finally paid off in a bizarre incident. Smith was brought down in the area, which the ref waived away the penalty appeals. Then for some inexplicable reason Adam Virgo decided to grab Smith by the scruff if his neck and throw him back to the ground again! The linesman standing in front of the incident started to wave his flag furiously to indicate a penalty for an off the ball incident inside the penalty area. After a bried consultation, the ref awarded the penalty. Up stepped Danny Ings to cooly score the resulting penalty.

It should have been 2 for the Cherries when Ings surged forward, with Feeney one side and Lovell on the other. Sadly he opted to go for goal himself, when going left or right to switch play would have been the better option.

It wasn't too long before the Cherries pressing again as neat build up play involving Harry Arter allowed Ings to produce another shot which went narrowly wide in the 60th minute.

Five minutes later Liam Feeney managed to beat his 2 markers to square the ball to Ings on the edge of the area who calmly slid the ball home to double the advantage.

We couldn't screw it up now?

In the 85th minute Harry Arter was adjudged to have handled inside his own penalty area, resulting in a Yeovil penalty, which was calmly tucked away by Adam Virgo to reduce the arrears.

On the stroke of 90 minutes Steve Fletcher (on for Lovell) had a chance to make it 3-1. Sadly his shot was tamely hit and was a comfortable save by Henderson in the Yeovil goal.

The Cherries were going to rue their missed chances as MacDonald managed to head home from close range as the home side levelled in the 92nd minute. I think the visiting defence was un nerved by the presence of the home keeper loitering in their penalty area.

Once again, late goals un-do the Cherries. Something we will look back on this season to wonder what might have been over the course of the season.

Jalal - competent in goal. Did all that was asked of him.
Smith/Cooper/Pearce/Cummings - the back 4 did all that was asked of them. Pity they couldn't hold out at the end.
Feeney - excellent individual performance from Feeney. A close contender for man of the match
Hollands - a few stray passes, but put in a great shift in the middle of the park
Man Of The MatchArter - A superb performance from Arter, covering every blade of grass on the pitch and more.
McDermott - some very intelligent play
Ings - a great display from Ings, sticking two fingers up at some of his recent critics
Lovell - still getting there in my opinion
Fletcher - not so effective when he came on
Dalla Valle - definitely not effective
Pugh - still missing something from what we saw at the start of the season

AFCB: Jalal, Smith, Cooper, Pearce, Cummings, Feeney, Hollands, Arter, McDermott, Ings, Lovell
Subs: Thomas, Purches, Baudry, Molesley, Pugh (on for McDermott, 69 mins), Fletcher (for Lovell, 83 mins), Dalla Valle (for Ings, 83 mins)
Andy Burton, Portsmouth