Cherries lined up with 3 changes from Tuesday's defeat at Hereford. Ryan Garry, having recovered from swine flu, returned at the back replacing Guyett (who wasn't even on the bench so has presumably succumbed to an injury himself). New loan signing Anthony Edgar came into midfield in place of Bartley. Edgar is apparently another cousin of Jermain Defoe (but then so it seems is half the population of East London!). The other change saw Big Fletch rested to the bench and replaced by Alan Connell, who has shown some promise recently of starting to get back towards his best form.
The game started brightly for table-topping Cherries (better make the most of using that phrase) and they forced a succession of 5 corners but without really producing any clear-cut opportunity. The best chance was a looping header from Pitman which was comfortably turned over by the Vale 'keeper Martin.
Bournemouth soon ran out of steam though and the home side started to take control of the game. A reasonable chance from Loft on the edge of the box was skied over the bar, then Owen smashed a header against the bar and Taylor got the best of Bradbury to shoot across the goal against Jalal's left hand post. Then a speculative cross (although I'm sure he'd claim it was a shot) by Griffiths got caught in the gusting wind and had Jalal desperately backpedalling to turn it over the bar. The half-time whistle came as a welcome respite. HT 0-0
The visitors started the second period like the first - brightly, but a corner came to nothing and a free kick from Pitman was blasted over the bar. Such is the expectation now from our leading scorer that we think he's going to score from all of these but it wouldn't hurt to give somebody else a go occasionally.
Pitman's best chance of the game came just after the hour when he glanced a header from an inviting cross by Cummings against the far post with the home 'keeper well beaten.
The game then became rather stop-start as the referee Mr Shoebridge, who famously missed a clear goal for Crystal Palace at Bristol City, became increasingly fussy.
It was time for the not-so-secret weapon and Fletch replaced Connell to supply a bit of bulk up front, with Bartley taking over for the understandably tiring Garry.
With the game drifting to a stalemate the last couple of minutes brought a chance for either side. First Jalal secured his clean sheet by tipping over a free kick from Taylor, then in the dying seconds Pitman stretched to reach a Fletcher flick-on only to be denied by the legs of Martin.
I think we'll probably look back on this game as a point gained rather than 2 lost as we were probably second-best overall. Although it's too early to judge fairly, Edgar didn't have the impact we were hoping for from our first loan signing since for what seems a lifetime but then I suppose I was hoping for another Jermain!
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AFCB: Jalal, Bradbury, Pearce, Garry, Cummings, Edgar, Feeney, Robinson, Hollands, Connell, Pitman
Subs: McQuoid, Fletcher (for Connell, 72 mins), Bartley (for Garry, 77 mins)