Jan 22 AFC Bournemouth 4-3 Luton Town Att: 3489

Last updated : 24 January 2008 By Andy Burton
In front of the smallest League gate of the season, the Cherries and the Hatters generated a game which was compelling to watch for the full +90 minutes - not only because there was some good football played by both sides, but also the open nature of the game as both sides were intent on claiming 3-points in their desperate bids to avoid the drop to League Two!

Nice to see Pryce get the nod to make his full home debut given injuries to both Moss and Stewart.

The game was barely a minute old when Vokes crossed the ball from the Cherries right over to Gradel whose sweetly struck volley found the back of the North Stand net before most of us had found our seats! The perfect start which did more than lift the tiny Dean Court faithful ahead of a stirring match! Cue celebrations and chants of 'Kevin Bonds barmy army'!

Pryce was called up just after the opening goal. The catch he made was easy, but would have given the youngster confidence. His resulting throw out found Vokes, whose charge down the right eventually led to a corner.

Now you would have thought that with a debutant keeper in the Cherries goal, that Luton were going to test him at every opportunity. Thankfully, the Cherries defence were restricting the Luton front line to long distance efforts which were high and wide of the target.

The middle part of the first half seemed to die as both sides couldn't find a way though - the encounter was looking more like a mid table end of season game. But it was clear that Luton were more in the game than they had been in the early stages.

Just before the half hour, a Luton corner led to a Bournemouth break. Unfortunately Kuffour too the wrong option to feed the ball right, instead of left, which saw the move break down. We were not to late too long for the second goal though. A lovely ball from Lee Bradbury found Vokes who in turn fed the ball through to Kuffour who had a 1-on-1 with the keeper, and managed to calmly slot the ball home to make it 2-0 in the 31st minute.

Right on the stroke of half time, it looked as if the ref had given the Cherries a free kick following a hand ball by the Luton player inside our penalty box, only to realise that he had actually awarded a penalty against us for an apparent infringement by Perrett! Spring stepped up to place the ball high to Pryce's left, giving the youngster no chance of saving it.

HT: 2-1

The second half got under way as much the same tempo as the first half had finished - with a flurish with Pryce largely untroubled in the Bournemouth goal. Hollands and Perrett both saw chances go agonisingly close for the Cherries, but it was Luton Town who struck back to equalise on the hour mark as the Cherries failed to pick up the run of Morgan at the far post who had the simplest of tap ins from close range!

Shouts of a penalty were waived away by the ref when Luton's Perry clearly handled inside his own area, much to the disgust of the vocal home support.

Perrett lost possession (cheaply in my opinion) allowing Spring an opportunity at goal, and although Pryce did well to save the first effort, the rebound fell to Paul Furlong to put Luton ahead with just 12 minutes left on the clock! Heart ache for the Cherries as it had seemed that a victory, and then a point, had slipped from their grasp!

This heralded a change with Pitman coming on for Kuffour.

With just a few seconds left of normal time left on the clock, Gradel picked out Vokes, who swept his right boot around the ball for a superb equaliser to make it 3-3 going in to four minutes of time added.

Then with the clock ticking in to the 3rd minute of time added, Bradbury crossed the ball for Pitman to head the winner to send the home support absolutely wild with delight!

This was such an improbable win with 5 minutes left to go of the game, but somehow we managed to win to secure a vital 3-points against one of our relegation rivals.

Man Of The Match
Without doubt, the man of the match was Danny Hollands, who ran his socks off throughout this game. Okay he made a few mistakes, but he always battled back to try and win the ball.

AFCB: Pryce, Young, Gowling, Perrett, Cummings, Cooper, Hollands, Gradel, Vokes, Kuffour, Bradbury
Subs: J Pearce, Bartlet, Partington, Tessem, Pitman (for Kuffour, 80)
Andy Burton, Portsmouth