Dec 28 AFC Bournemouth 0-2 Barnet Att: 4725

Last updated : 29 December 2008 By Andy Burton
After a bright opening, when 4 corners were won in the opening few minutes, the game seem to die on its' feet, giving the impression that it was a Sunday kick-about, or the warm up entertainment before the main match was due to kick off. Sadly this WAS the main attraction and it wasn't pretty!

Half way through the first half, Adomah cut in from the Barnet left hand side, managed to avoid defensive challenges to fire home past Jalal.

The Cherries responded with a period of conserted pressure, which did see, at one stage, the Barnet keeper (who was very good at flapping and dropping the ball) punch as opposed to catching a cross, which fell to Danny Hollands, whose half volley from the edge of the area clipped the top of the cross bar and out for a goal kick.

The second half wasn't any better to be honest. Two poor sides who really didn't know what each other was about.

Alan Connell was denied with a goal line clearance from Yakubu, as was Igoe with a point blank header.

Then the comedy moment of the game came in the 70th minute when Adomah cut in from the left hand side (again), this time he beat Jalal only to find a gapping goal to aim for - which gave time to two Cherries defenders to cover the near post. Somehow (don't ask me to explain), the ball squeezed in at the near post and the Bees' second of the game. Effectively game over.

I do wonder, having witnessed a performance like this, whether the first team really want to preserve their Football League status. Truely awful, lacking guile, invention and any coherence. I also wander whether Messers Quinn and Tindall really know what they are doing. First it's just one up front, which didn't work. Then they discover that two up front does work, as does passing the ball to feet, but in this game it was back to hoofing it up field to the smallest players on the pitch, who never stood a chance. One step forward and three back at the moment.

MOM: Jason Pearce - the best of a bad bunch.

Jalal - had nothing to do, except pick the ball out from the back of the net.
Pearce - did little wrong.
Cooper - brought little to the side having missed a couple of matches.
Garry - did little wrong.
Guyett - could have done much better for the first goal.
Bartley - ran around like a headless chicken but has little end product.
Igoe - tried his best but was relatively quiet.
Hollands - brought little to the side having missed a couple of matches.
Molesley - tried hard.
Connell/Tubbs - little to do as the midfield was largely absent.
The subs, when they came on were in effective.

AFCB: Jalal, Guyett, Garry, Cooper, Pearce, Bartley, Igoe, Hollands, Molesley, Tubbs, Connell
Subs: Partington, Preston, Ward, Cummings (for Garry, 64mins), Bradbury (for Molesley, 64 mins)
Andy Burton, Portsmouth