Match Review – Bournemouth 2-1 Brighton
So, Brighton fail to win at Bournemouth. Brighton fail to win against an Eddie Howe managed team. In other shock news, the sky is blue, the grass is green and Taylor Swift has great legs.
Only once in the last 20 years have we won at Dean Court/Fitness First Stadium/Goldsands Stadium/Vitality Stadium. Its one of those places were nothing seems to go right. Still, at least we don’t have to go there again until…what, Tuesday? Oh shit.
That will no doubt be Bournemouth Stiffs v Brighton Stiffs. Which, given he was only on the bench on Friday , will mean the Albion having to face Jordon Ibe. Ibe changed the game when he was thrown on by Eddie Howe, setting up both of Bournemouth’s late goals. Until his introduction, they hadn’t had a sniff other than when Shane Duffy was suffering some wildly entertaining brain freeze moments.
Ibe set up the first with a cheeky little back heel to Andrew Surman and then he slipped in Jermaine Defoe five minutes later for the second. The defence parted like a certain sea named after a colour when confronted by a biblical figure from the Old Testament, and while Defoe’s finish was crisp, you simply cannot give a player of his quality that much time and space in the box. He will punish you every time.
If anything, that highlights the difference between the Championship and the Premier League. Last season, we could afford to switch off defensively twice and still keep a clean sheet. This season, we’ve ended up losing a game because of it.
One of the reasons that Bournemouth – one of the best attacking sides in the division, lest we forget – didn’t force Maty Ryan into a save was because of Lewis Dunk. He was absolutely colossus at the back with Jamie Carragher raving about him on Sky afterwards. If Gareth Southgate isn’t watching and taking an interest then frankly, he is utterly mad.
Dale Stephens and Davy Propper ran the midfield. Quite how or why Propper is receiving so much criticism from sections of the Albion support is beyond us. Yes, he started the season slowly but he has got better with every game. Still, I suppose we need a player for people to irrationality dislike to follow in the fine footsteps of Oliver Norwood, Jake Forster-Caskey and Ashley Barnes.
Pascal Gross claimed another assist with a quite brilliant cross for Solly March to head home. Losing Gross to injury in the second half was a real blow and if he is out for any period of time then our creativity will drop by about 70%. It was his set pieces that led to us having one cleared off the line and rattling the bar, with that loose ball only needing to hit a body to go in. This being Bournemouth away where we seem to have all the luck of a bloke walking under a ladder indoors while carrying an umbrella, it didn’t.
Those chances aside, neither team really created a lot. The one glaring thing to come out of the game was our lack of pace going forward. Tomer Hemed is never going to get in behind a back line and that meant Bournemouth could push us far up the pitch, leaving Dunk and Duffy practically on the edge of our box for long periods. That’s where we need a Sam Baldock to run off of Hemed. The latest prognosis is Baldock should be fit in October, so expect him back about March time. Until then, perhaps it is time to unleash Senor Izquierdo from the start?
The bed wetting that has come out of this defeat means that Dreams will be doing a good turn this week with people having to replace waterlogged mattresses. It all seems a little over the top – Bournemouth are in a false position, we didn’t play badly and we never win there anyway. Onward and upwards…to Bournemouth again on Tuesday. Shit.
