April 24 Peterborough United 0-1 AFC Bournemouth Att: 4831

With AFCB needing the points to maintain our slim play off hopes and Peterborough in need of them to halp retain their Div 2 status a competative match was likely. However, Peterborough were just not good enough to do this and indeed they did not appear to have any great desire in their play.

Most of the chances were created by Bournemouth although Moss did make some fine saves and on more than one occasion showed his bravery by either diving at an on rushing striker's feet or spreading himself so that he got man and ball. We appeared to be content to absorb Peterborough's generally poor play and hit them on the break. Jorgensen, Hayter and Purches all had good chances to score and at times we played the flowing passing game as we swept forward.

The match was settled in the 80th minute when Purches's shot was deflected for a corner. Hayter swung this in and Browning, Holmes, Tindall and Buxton had all run to the near post taking their markers and the rest off the 'boro defence leaving Carl Fletcher to arrive late and lose his marker to send his header in at the far post.

A sad sight was to see Feeney hobble off after only a few minutes to be replaced by Tindall who slotted into midfield whilst Hayter went up front. I'm not a Feeney fan but he has had an unlucky season for injury and has not had the chance to prove his worth. The move did, however, give us a very solid central midfield partnership of Browning and Tindall.

Probably not much fun to play against!

In the end this was a dissappointing match under the circumstances with Posh being particularly uninspired, uninventive and lethargic considering their parlous league position. A welcome 3 points for us though, the first win in 6.





Man of the match has to be Carl Fletcher. As Jerry Revell, who had joined us for the weekend, put it 'he was by far the classiest player on the pitch'. Carl is a vital part of the team but to fulfil his potential he has to play in division 1 at least. Should he leave he will be missed dreadfully but for his own sake he must. Good luck to him as he has never let us down.

AFCB: Moss, Buxton, C Fletcher, Broadhurst, Cummings, Purches, Hayter, Browning, Jorgensen, Holmes, Feeney
Subs: Tindall (for Feeney 4), O'Connor (for Jorgensen 83), and Young (for Holmes 87), Stock, Elliott

Phil Nesbitt, Reading
(although written in Chennai India)