First up, great to see Shwan Jalal back in the starting line up! Long over due in my opinion.
The opening period of the game contained little to warm the soul, let alone jump and down to keep warm on a very cold afternoon in north Lincolnshire, especially after the depressing TV pictures we saw in the "Honest Lawyer" at lunchtime on BBC1!!
There were moments of individual skill from Cherries players, but at times it didn't link up, or lacked any pattern let alone any conserted plan. This may be unfair, but there are too many individuals and not quite a cohesive team.
To his credit, the likes of McDermott, Taylor and Pugh were doing their best to create chances, but were being thwarted as they seemed to be doing the job by themselves. A few times, it could have worked - sadly it wasn't. When play was more linked up (where are the overlapping wingers?) Scunny were carved open, only to find an acrobatic goal keeper barring the way. Credit to Lyle Taylor for attempting an over head kick. If it had gone in, it would have looked amazing on the Football League Show, as it was the attempt went wide.
That said, Scunny were not doing much better either, especially as Grant missed a sitter when defence splitting pass found him clear, but failed to hit the target.
The dead lock on a bleak afternoon finally came 3 minutes before the break when a fine individual run from McDermott saw a low shot nestled in the back of the net - the shot coming from outside the penalty area.
If there were a moment that summed up the lack of understanding/lack of cohesive play we've seen under Bradbury and now Groves, came early in the second half when Pugh and Francis tried playing a one-two. Great idea, but the pass back to Pugh was made to look silly as Pugh had already moved from where he was to try and find a more advantageous position. Needless to say Scunny cleared what (little) threat there was.
There were some moments to enjoy in the second period. Two came after young Josh Wakefield came on to make his first team debut just after the hour mark. He created a lovely chance for himself which saw Slocombe in the Scunny goal tip the ball over the cross bar, and the second saw Wakefield (again) slide the ball through to Hines whose trickery also forced Slocombe in to an acrobatic save.
The seemingly inevitable equaliser came with 11 minutes left on the clock when a low cross came in from the Scunthorpe right hand side for Thompson to slide home at the near post.
Jalal - great to see him back in the starting line up.
Francis/Zubar/Addision/Daniels - an okay performance as far as the back 4 were concerned.
Cooper - got caught in possession a few times.
McDermott and Pugh - a lively enough performance, tried doing too much at times when there simpler options were available.
MacDonald - was he on the pitch?
Thomas - ran around with little to show for his efforts
Taylor - great acrobatics, but like Thomas ran around a lot with little to show for his efforts
Wakefield - about the only bright spot on an other wise dull afternoon - my man of the match.
Hines - had a great effort to net the winner, but beaten by the keeper.
Groves/Brooks - I have yet to be convinced that this is the managerial team to take AFC Bournemouth forward.
AFCB: Jalal, Francis, Zubar, Addison, Daniels, McDermott, MacDonald, Cooper, Pugh, Thomas, Taylor
Subs: Flahavan, Malone, Gregory, Wakefield (for McDermott, 61 mins), Hines (for Taylor, 72 mins)
Andy Burton, Portsmouth