Kevin Bond was forced to make two changes for this game from the midweek defeat against Barnsley, bringing in Neil Young for the injured Russ Perrett and Danny Hollands for the suspended Shaun Cooper. The game began in a somewhat tentative way with neither side really showing signs of any confidence and keeping possession, but it was Bournemouth who carved out the first chance of the game. Jo Kuffour broke down the left and crossed for Sam Vokes after just seven minutes, only for the youngster to blast the ball a yard over the bar when it was easier to at the very least hit the target. Three minutes later the Cherries were behind when Barnard was given the freedom of the pitch to strike a first time shot past Gareth Stewart and continue his rich vein of scoring since his move from Spurs.
Vokes had a second opportunity mid way through the half when he pounced on a fifty fifty ball from another Kuffour pass in the area, but this time was just beaten to it by Flahavan in the home goal, coming off second best and hobbling for the next few minutes. The rest of the half of the half drifted into tedious mediocrity as neither side really strung together anything of any note that came close to troubling either goalkeeper. And then arguably the best, if only moment of note if you were a Cherries fan, came in the fortieth minute. Kuffour won a corner on the right that Warren Cummings and Maxi Gradel worked well with the latter swinging in a perfect cross for James Pearce to head his first ever league goal. The next few minutes until the break saw the visitors in the ascendancy with the goal clearly giving them belief and if you happened to be a Southend fan you would probably have been relieved when the half time whistle went.
Sadly, neither manager appeared to give his side the necessary half time team talk, and the second period largely followed the pattern of the first forty five minutes. Even half chances were few and far between: Bournemouth's best half chance falling to Lee Bradbury on his return to Roots Hall, finding himself in a good position on the right, but only to fire high, wide, and not very handsomely. Like Vokes in the first half, this was a case of being a damn sight easier to hit the target than miss. At least young Sam has youth and inexperience on his side!
The game drifted into a virtual non entity, not helped in the least by the referee who throughout the contest gave inconsistently odd decisions, at times pulling play back rugby union style for an advantage that never materialised and for which he never signalled that he was playing an advantage in the first place. The frustration on the terraces spilled over on the pitch as matters began to get a tad tetchy with one or two confrontations beginning to manifest themselves, not least between between Barnard and Pearce. Barnard was banging in the goals for Spurs reserves for fun until a few weeks ago but never made the breakthrough into the Premier League. Here at Roots Hall he showed a side of him that I can only really call "dark" as he was persistently in Pearce's face, niggling away throughout the game and, frankly, doing himself no favours whatsoever. But here lies another failing of the officials: he commited what must have been at least a dozen infractions of the laws of the game that individually amounted to nothing, such as sticking his head into Pearce's face on more than one occasion, wrapping arms around his markers at set pieces on more than one ocassion and, likewise, demonstrating dissent by kicking the ball away having seen his side give away a free kick. But the yellow card was brandished not to him, but three other players for questionably one off offences: Hollands and Bartley for Bournemouth and Frances for Southend.
Just as the game was beginning to drift away away into the most boring of draws and with both managers having made a number of changes (Brett Pittman replacing Kuffour on the hour) up popped James Walker to score the winner for the second time time this season against Bournemouth (statto's among you reading this will remember that he did the honours for Yeovil before Christmas) and to give the home side what ultimately proved to be a barely deserved winner. A late change by Bond brining on Jo Tessum for Cummings made absolutely no difference whatsoever.
This proved to be a poor performance and result for the club. It was not really a question of heads being down from the start or even from the moment that they went behind, but really one in which for whatever reason they seemed totally incapable of stringing together more than two passes and getting into a stride that we all know that they are capable of doing on their day, with simply too much hoofing up in the air for the big guys up front, such as Kuffour and the inspirational Gradel. The results around them at the foot of the table went for them, but that is of absolutely no consolation whatsoever if the team cannot capitalise on it by getting at least a point from a game such as this.
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AFCB: Stewart, Pearce, Gowling, Young, Cummings, Bradbury, Hollands, Bartley, Gradel, Kuffour, Vokes
Subs: Pryce, McQuoid, Partington, Pitman (for Kuffour, 59), Tessem (for Cummings, 83)
Dave Linsay, Essex