Rumours circulated (from East Stand seat N133) that Redknapp & Souness chatted over their Sandbanks garden fence to cook up the deal to pay off HMRC. The club could now sign non-contract players – apart from Steve Lovell, about to have an ankle operation.
Stanley k.o to the North Stand; what was Cooper doing in defence? Amazing come-back. The first few minutes was even, then Boscombe won a free in the D. Wiggins feinted, Pitman’s shot was blocked, as was Robinson’s follow-up. Fletcher headed to the keeper. McQuoid, starting on the right, was quick & lively. Stanley seemed to want to contain; Bartley & Cooper were covering comfortably. Wiggins’s passing could have been better.
On 18 minutes, the Boscombe right-wing throw reached the near corner of the 6-yard box. The defender nodded it down, Feeney threw a foot at it & it bobbled just inside the keeper’s left-hand post for 1-0. Hats-in-the-air-time. Then he did some lovely twisty work in the centre circle, but played it too hard forward for Pitman. Feeney & McQuoid swapped wings, & Pitman tried (but not hard enough) from 35 yards. Eons ago, Roberto Carlos scored with a fabulous, spectacular free kick. After that he sought to emulate the feat instead of trying to become the best left-back he could. For that Brazilian, read Pitman. Back in the real world, Bartley shoulder-shoved a forward away, a brilliant edge-of-area tackle. Hollands was combative.
Pitman took another free 30 yards out; it ended up with Bradbury whose long-range effort was deflected for a (wasted) corner. Pitman took a corner on the left; McQuoid headed wide at the far stick. I suppose Pitman does this as his delivery is decent from that side, & it confuses the defence’s marking intentions. Cooper was putting his head in hard places. The home side had slight ascendency. An over-the-top ball saw Pitman chase, but baulked sufficiently by the defender to have his shot saved at the near post. Hollands chested to Bradbury who fired over left-footed. Bartley was strong again.
Stanley received 2 quick yellows; the first for an accidental (perhaps) short-arm on Hollands who could have lost his head in more than one sense, but just shook off the dazed feeling (& blood from a cut lip) & returned to the fray. Pitman tried a free from wide far left – high & wide. Stanley fans had a song adapting “Anarchy in the UK”. Then the sun came out. HT: 1-0.
Soon after the restart, Wiggins gave away a corner. Ex-Liverpool Miles kicked out the corner flag as he kicked the ball; the ref. stopped play, talked to the 2 captains, & allowed the corner to be retaken. Wrong! The ball had gone into play, so play had to continue. Grief! Then, rather than have his players give better service to McQuoid, Howe replaced him with Connell on 55. There had been few crosses, & so it continued for a time. Feeney returned to the right, Connell sort-of left. Stanley hit one long & over. Bradbury showed experienced covering; Feeney burst through, was tripped, but no pen. Hmmm. Cooper made a superb run from deep, over the half-way line, & passed inside the full-back for Wiggins to meet & put over a poor cross. Several more crosses ensued, resulting in a corner. It was now 90% Boscombe. Bartley was a star – speed, awareness, sense.
Stanley made a triple substitution; the manager would’ve used all 7 subs if he could. But Boscombe’s impetus had gone; Stanley moved through midfield, playing their way around Boscombe but merely shot over again. Then Feeney nicked inside his marker, headed for the area & let fly an Exocet at the keeper’s head. Arms went up instinctively for protection, & the ball was parried onto the bar. Pitman, sniffing glory, followed up, played a wall-pass via the falling goalie’s hands, & tapped it in. 2-0, 79. Igoe (going left-ish; Connell second striker) then replaced Fletcher, who had to hand the captain’s armband to someone. Hollands seemingly looked away; Cooper was a long way back near the goal, so Fletcher slipped it over Robinson’s arm. So that’s 5 captains this season…
Even the match sponsors got it right by naming Bartley Man of the Match. Connell came in from the right, tapping it left-footed to the keeper. Bartley was at it again, bundling a forward over the hoardings but not even a yellow. Feeney was replaced by Cummings on 90 (+2?) but it should’ve been a lot earlier. In spite of his impact on the game, Feeney was at half-cock much of the time. The guy on my left was on his back most of the game, utterly undeserved; like some others, Feeney should have played only 25 games so far. Igoe went right, Cummings left. Jalal, a virtual spectator, was alert to make his first save, following which were cheers at the final whistle. FT: 2-0.
That puts us 3rd following Rotherham’s last-minute defeat at Notts County, & destiny in our own hands.
With the embargo lifted, Howe should be able to consider a retained list in a few weeks. That’ll make interesting reading. There’s a diaspora of previous Boscombe players throughout the top 2 divisions including loanees & managers; even given the great work of Joe Roach, with continuing financial constraints it’ll be a long time before the club can field sufficient numbers of substantial quality. That’s not taking anything away from the efforts of the current squad & management, but the best this side could do against the 2003 side would be to battle grittily. As for the current squad, Nick & I agreed that if Garry & Cooper were both available for the next game, we’d have Cooper replacing Bradbury, & Bartley & Garry central (hey – Garry Cooper in defence; High Noon for some side!). Bradbury could then replace Fletcher.
Big players today were Cooper & Robinson, with Hollands putting in a substantial shift. It’s important to recognise the (low) quality of the away forwards, but in this context Bartley’s display was towering, taking no prisoners. His one mistake was upfield, & he even made a good recovery from that. Immense; worthy of the award.
AFCB: Jalal, Bradbury, Bartley, Cooper, Wiggins, Feeney, Hollands, Robinson, McQuoid, Fletcher, Pitman
Subs: Thomas, Partington, Connell (for McQuoid, 55 mins), Igoe (for Fletcher, 80 mins), Cummings (for Feeney, 92 mins)
Peter Wicks, Bulford