Match Preview: Plucky Little Bournemouth v Brighton
Well, at least Sky and BT Sports have both realised that Plucky Little Bournemouth v Brighton isn’t a local derby.
Since 2010, virtually every game between the Albion and the Cherries has been beamed into homes across the nation based on the fact that it was a “South Coast Derby”.
Anyone with a modicum of geographical knowledge could tell you that the two towns are nearly 100 miles apart. It was like calling Stoke City v Manchester United a local derby and broadcasting it live every time the two sides faced off.
For once, we get to visit the Vitality Stadium at 3pm on a Saturday. It probably won’t make any difference, mind – Brighton’s record against Bournemouth is terrible while Eddie Howe just doesn’t lose games against the Albion.
Still, it’s the season for miracles, isn’t it?
Who are Bournemouth?
Formed in 1890 as Boscombe St. John’s Institute, the Cherries spent the first 30 years of their existence playing park football before joining the Southern League in 1920. In 1923 they changed their name in order to sound less like a secure psychiatric facility and more like a football club, becoming Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic and gaining election to the Football League in the same year. They’ve spent most of their subsequent history bouncing around between the third and fourth tiers and have had a couple of notable brushes with extinction, most recently in 2008 when they entered administration and were hit with a 17 point penalty while in the bottom division. That looked like it would lead to relegation into the backwaters of non-league football but remarkably, new boss Eddie Howe mastered a great escape which culminated in a 2-1 win over Grimsby Town to secure survival. Since then, there’s been no looking back for either Bournemouth or Howe.
What are they like now?
The Bournemouth story is often billed as a fairytale, Howe making miracles happen with nothing but an old cow and a bag of magic beans to work with. What all that rather conveniently ignores is that Bournemouth are backed by some serious Russian money. Oligarch Maxim Demin began investing in the club in 2011 when they were in League One and he, just like Tony Bloom and the Albion, has pretty much single handedly funded their rise to the Premier League. In their 2014-15 promotion campaign, Bournemouth racked up losses of an astonishing £38.3m for a single season, spending over six times the amount that the Football League’s Financial Fair Play regulations allowed and over a third of what the Albion spent building the Amex. The gamble paid off though and the profligacy hasn’t stopped as the Cherries have established themselves as a top flight club. They’re having a brilliant season this time out, sitting just three points off sixth place.
Which players should we be worried about?
Striker Callum Wilson is attracting firm interest from some of the biggest clubs in the land after his goal scoring exploits so far this season, which included netting on his first appearance for England against the United States last month, the same game in which Lewis Dunk made his debut for the Three Lions. The success of Wilson is another glowing indictment of David Burke’s reign of terror as the Albion’s Head of Football, with him deeming Wilson not to be good enough for second tier football when we were interested in bringing him in from Coventry City.
What’s the Albion’s record against Bournemouth like?
Brighton’s head-to-head with Bournemouth doesn’t look too bad overall. There have been 109 meetings in the Football League between the two sides with the Albion winning 36, the Cherries 44 and 109 draws. The last decade has been nothing short of a disaster for Brighton though. You have to go back 10 meetings to find the last time we beat Bournemouth, Alex Revell netting a hat-trick at Withdean on New Year’s Day 2008 in a 3-2 win. Our record at Dean Court/Fitness First Stadium/Goldsands Stadium /Vitality Stadium is even worse with just two wins from the past 15 visits along the south coast. It isn’t just Bournemouth who hold something of a hoodoo over the Albion either – in the 11 games that Howe has managed against us for both the Cherries and Burnley, he’s only lost one.
What’s the best WeAreBrighton.com memory of Bournemouth away?
The only win away at Bournemouth this century came on a Tuesday night in September 2007. Dean Cox and Bas Savage scored in a 2-0 win with Savage performing the moonwalk in front of a sparse away crowd. Remarkably given the WeAreBrighton.com team were all students back then, we didn’t combine it with a night out which seems like a missed opportunity.
What’s the worst WeAreBrighton.com memory of Bournemouth away?
Nine months before Savage’s Michael Jackson tribute, we’d gone to Bournemouth on New Year’s Day. A horrible journey to make with a horrible hangover made even worse when Wayne Henderson miscontrolled a back pass, allowing Brett Pittman to score the only goal of the game in the 91st minute. Just to make matters worse, we then got in a heated argument in the car park with a girl who remarkably tried to claim it wasn’t Henderson’s fault. She has been known as “Henderson Girl” forever more and we’ve done our level best to avoid her ever since. “Stupid woman”, as Jeremy Corbyn might say.
Whose played for both sides?
Howe may have had plenty of money to spend from his Russian sugar daddy, but he’s also been extremely adept in the transfer market in finding young lower league players for bargain fees and coaching them up to Premier League standard. Steve Cook is one such player. He was sold to Bournemouth by Gus Poyet in January 2012 and has since gone onto win two promotions with the club as well as captaining them in the top flight. Howe repeated the trick when buying Tommy Elphick from the Albion six months later while another Brighton product, Wes Fogden, played over 50 times for the Cherries in League One between 2011 and 2014.
Other than football, what is Bournemouth famous for?
The area was popular with fisherman and smugglers before development began in 1810. In 1870 it became a town and thanks to it’s fantastic beaches and vibrant nightlife, Bournemouth is now one of the top tourist destinations in the country. It has given the world two EastEnders actors, Alison Newman who played DI Samantha Keeble and Ben Hardy who played Peter Beale. JRR Tolkien is one of a number famous people who used to holiday regularly at the resort.
Where’s the betting value for Bournemouth v Brighton?
With Howe’s dedication to attacking football, there should be plenty of spaces for the Albion to exploit on the counter attack which makes it likely that both teams will score. You can back that at 10/11. Chris Hughton also seems to be favouring Florin Andone as his striker away from home, making him a good price at 5/2 to score anytime. If you are going to be placing your bet on any of these odds, you may first want to look at the betting tips on topfootballtipster.com who have a number of useful tips to follow for upcoming fixtures.
Prediction
Brighton’s terrible record against Bournemouth as well as our inability to beat any team managed by Howe makes for grim prospects at the Vitality Stadium. We’re backing a repeat of last season’s league visit there which ended in a 2-1 win for the hosts.
