For his first game in charge the Mighty Quinn settled for the same team that Joe Roach had selected for the excellent win against Bristol rovers in the Mickey Mouse Cup. This meant Shaun Cooper again at centre back in place of the injured Guyett and Jeff Goulding making his league debut up front.
Despite a confident start from the Cherries it was only six minutes into the game when, not for the first time this season, the defence acted like a bunch of strangers and allowed Butcher space but fortunately he shot straight at Shwan Jalal.
On 12 minutes, following a free kick on the left, the defence came out in instalments to leave Forrester on his own to volley past the keeper for a 1-0 lead.
Bournemouth responded well and seven minutes later the best passing move of the game culminated in a teasing cross from Wagstaff on the right which Brett Pitman was able to slide in at the far post and convert. 1-1
Jalal was forced into the first of a number of fine saves when he tipped over the bar a crashing shot from Weston that had seemed destined for the top corner.
With Darren Anderton off form and uncharacteristically misplacing his passes and a distinct lack of pace up front (Pitman seems to run as though he has a grapefruit inserted into a certain part of his anatomy!) further chances were hard to come by but Danny Hollands did force a save from Russel Hoult the home keeper on the stroke of half time. HT 1-1 Over the 45 minutes we were possibly slightly the better of two poor sides.
Hoult was called into action again just under the hour to deal with a Lee Bradbury volley after he had latched onto an Anderton free kick.
Jalal made his best save five minutes later with a point-blank stop from Edwards who had once more evaded any marking. From the resulting corner Anderton hooked the ball off the line to keep the scores level.
Rather than driving on for a win the Cherries appeared to tire badly and the lack of fitness of the squad was a point taken up by Jimmy Quinn in his post-match interview.
Sammy Igoe has been very disappointing so far this season but apparently had a good game in the game against Rovers. Unfortunately today he was back to his ineffectual worst and we really needed the strength of Marvin Bartley in the middle.
The final stages degenerated into a number of niggly challenges and the referee, who had waited a long time to produce his first yellow card, ended up collecting 6 names in his book.
Another effort from Forrester, pounced on by Jalal, and possibly the best chance of the second half from the promising Wagstaff in the dying minutes couldn't produce a winner.
Despite our need of a second goal Ricky Sappleton remained on the bench and I think he'll soon be on his way back to Leicester.
In summary, although in a normal season an away draw at County would probably be looked on as a reasonable result, with a 17 point handicap we really need to be picking up maximum points against an opposition who were far from impressive.
|
AFCB: Jalal, Bradbury, Cooper, Pearce, Cummings, Anderton, Hollands, Igoe, Wagstaff, Goulding, Pitman
Subs: Pryce, Ward, Sappleton, McQuoid (for Goulding, 60 mins), Bartley (for Igoe, 84 mins)
Clive Loader, Wimbledon