Bournemouth had an early chance with keeper Simonsen blocking an attempt from Watson, but generally United dominated possession in the first half with Bournemouth preferring to sit back and absorb the pressure rather than press the ball in midfield. The strategy worked for a while with United mostly being kept at bay, although McDonald blasted an excellent chance over the bar from eight yards after a clever one-two with Evans. United pressure eventually told when Cresswell knocked a cross back and the ball dropped invitingly for an unmarked Evans to volley in from ten yards out.
Harry Arter continued his single-minded assault on the world yellow card record, this time with a deliberate handball, and was unsurprisingly replaced by Fogden at half-time, which seemed a better bet than relying on Arter to moderate his usual petulance sufficiently to avoid picking up a red.
Bournemouth began the second half on the front foot and Hines was inches away from making effective contact with an excellent cross from Francis. Unfortunately United doubled their advantage with their first attack, Evans penetrating the left side of our defence and Cresswell putting away the loose ball when his shot squirmed away from Flahavan. The fact that Cresswell was sitting on his backside at the time suggests that our defending could have been a little more diligent.
McDermott replaced an out-of sorts Pugh after the goal and Bournemouth’s play improved, but although we were having more possession there was little end product, and it was hard to see where a goal was coming from until Simonsen gifted Hines one of the more bizarre goals of this or any other season. He attempted to bowl the ball out but failed to notice Hines walking behind him, the ball made contact with Hines almost before it left the keeper’s hand and dropped obligingly at his feet for the slightly embarrassed-looking striker to roll it into the empty goal. The referee looked at the linesman, but neither could think of a good reason to disallow the goal and we were suddenly back in the game.
Bournemouth at last began to press forward to some purpose with Francis and Malone prominent, and United’s defending looked increasingly nervous. McDermott was inches away from an equaliser with a curling shot from inside the area that had Simonsen beaten and in added time Malone did well to cut through United’s defence but blazed his shot wide from a narrow angle when a low driven cross would have been a much better option.
No question that Sheffield United deserved the win, despite the nervy last 20 minutes, but if they are good enough to get promoted from this division then we are probably no more than two or three good players and some effective management from being seriously competitive next season – although a lot of other teams will be thinking the same.
No truly outstanding candidates, Simon Francis probably shades it for causing United problems with his forays down the right in the second half.
AFCB: Flahavan, Francis, Cook, Addison, Malone, Cooper, Pugh, Arter, MacDonald, Thomas, Hines
Subs: Zubar, Gregory, Fogden (for Arter, HT), McDermott (for Pugh, 56 mins), Taylor (for Hines, 76 mins)
Richie Barker, Leyton