I got in to the ground at about ten to three. I wouldn’t dream of being anywhere else at this time. The buzz you get walking through the gates and entering Dean Court is too good to miss. I took my seat as the game kicked off.
Both sides started evenly with half chances at either end. The first real chance though went to Bradford’s Owen Morrison who struck the ball cleanly but couldn’t direct his shot goalwards. Bournemouth hit back soon after with ever present James Hayter heading wide.
Bradford started to get on top with not twenty goal a season but twenty club a season striker Steve Claridge starting to show why he is still playing at a high level. When Bradford won a corner in front of the North Stand, Claridge placed himself on the line. The fans were chanting ‘Old man, Old Man’ to the delight of Claridge who struck a muscle pose then revealed his belly.
Bradford continued to attack and one of their players had a header magnificently saved by Gareth Stewart. Although Callum Hart was on the line to clear Gareth managed to push it round the post.
What was to be the only goal of the game came in the 42nd minute from a set piece. It looks as if Bournemouth don’t practice set pieces in training or they forget all about how to defend them when they get on the pitch. The corner came in from the left and their centre half, Damien Stewart, was there unmarked (which was bad enough) to nod the ball into an un-manned corner of the net past the despairing dive of Gareth Stewart. Just our luck that a centre back grabs his first league goal for Bradford this season against us.
We went in one down which is what we deserved.
HT: 0-1
Bournemouth came out in the 2nd half and made an explosive start, as they usually do when kicking towards the North Stand. O’Driscoll would have given them kick up the backside and it seemed to have worked. From the kick-off we made a couple of neat passes when the ball came to Hayter who nodded to Rodrigues about thirty yards out who had a crack. As you would come to expect from Rodrigues it almost went out for a throw in taking no deflection on the way.
In the 47th minute came our chance. Callum Hart made a surging run down the left wing and crossed it in along the floor to Hayter who slid in from three yards out to poke the ball into the net; The fans almost started to celebrate the goal. From nowhere though appeared Ricketts, the Bradford keeper, making a superb point blank save to deny Hayter. Whether he knew too much about it I don’t know. The ball came out to Browning who had his shot well saved by Ricketts again.
We really started to get on top for the first time in the match. We played well for all of ten minutes, before slipping back into misplaced passes and sloppy control, although neither side really grabbed hold of the game after this.
In the 83rd minute Bournemouth had a rare attack which came to nothing as Ricketts had hold of the ball. Browning gently jumped into him and Ricketts fell pole-axed to the floor. It was the minutest of touches. Whether he was trying to get Browning sent off, I don’t know, as he had previously been booked, but he certainly made a meal of it, staying down for five minutes. This outraged the fans behind the goal who ran down to the front and hurled abuse at Ricketts while he was on the floor. It all got extremely heated down there with players from both sides arguing with fans and each other. One man was hauled away by stewards. The keeper finally got up while still receiving a barrage of abuse from the Cherries fans. He seemed to make an unsavoury salute which sent the crowd wild. Extra stewards were called in to contain the fans. For the last five minutes of the game every time he touched the ball there was an almighty boo from the crowd.
Callum Hart, mainly for his second half performanceAFCB: Stewart, Hart, Howe, Griffiths, Purches, Foley, Browning, Rix, Cooke, Hayter, Rodrigues
Subs: Moss, Tindall, Cooper (for Rix, HT), O'Connor (on for Rodrigues, 85), Pitman (for Cooke, 69)