Opposition View: Bournemouth

It’s the cup draw that nobody wanted. Just two weeks after facing off in the Premier League, Brighton and Hove Albion are back off down the coast to take on Bournemouth, this time in the FA Cup.

You don’t need us to tell you that the Albion’s head-to-head record with Bournemouth is woeful. And if you went to the 2-0 defeat at the Vitality Stadium a fortnight ago, you also won’t need us to tell you that we were pretty woeful bar a bright opening 20 minutes.

Can Brighton finally get one over on the Cherries this time? Peter Bell from Bournemouth blog Cherry Chimes told us how seriously he expects Eddie Howe to take this one, his favourite FA Cup memories and just how much Lewis Dunk’s wrongful sending off last time out cost the Albion.

It’s only two weeks since we last met at the Vitality Stadium in the Premier League. What did you make of the game that day?
It was a quiet game really. Bournemouth didn’t come under too much pressure and they got the early goal that settled them down. David Brooks first goal was very well hit and Brighton will know not to back off when he has a sight of goal now. We have not had that many clean sheets, so for Bournemouth it was a very good day.

What was your opinion on Brighton’s performance? We didn’t really give a good account of ourselves other than in the first 20 minutes or so.
I thought that Brighton might have done better if they had more support for Locadia who played well up front. If Brighton had scored from a corner, when it was 1-0, it could easily have been a drawn match or a Brighton win, but the wrongful sending of of Lewis Dunk really cost Brighton. The introduction of Ryan Fraser was also important for Bournemouth to stretch Brighton’s back line and get to get the win.

How seriously is Eddie Howe likely to take the FA Cup? What sort of Bournemouth side are we likely to see?
The Premier League definitely comes first and while he likes the club to get to the latter stages of the cup competitions, he doesn’t play the first team. I’d expect to see about four of five changes minimum and Eddie Howe would probably like it to be more like seven or eight changes. The problem is we just haven’t got the numbers to rotate much more than that with so many injuries.

Plenty of Brighton supporters would love to see Chris Hughton play a strong side and go for the competition, especially as we are currently on course to stay up. Would Cherries fans want to see your club take it more seriously?
Bournemouth fans would live to get to a semi-final or final in a domestic competition. Bournemouth have never played their strongest side in the FA Cup in recent years. The squad is smaller this season and are doing better in the league, but the injuries will prevent Howe from putting out the full first eleven. He also will want to see how some of the others are doing and whether he can give them a go in the team after the cup game. There would be no disgrace going out to Brighton, but Bournemouth are at home and the fans will hope we can progress. We have made a habit of going out to Championship and League One sides in recent years, and it would be disappointing if that happens again. We’ll play to win.

What are your favourite Bournemouth-related memories of the FA Cup?
It is strange that most of our best cup performances have come in the Carabao Cup and not the FA Cup. We have to go back a bit to see a good run in the FA Cup. They are all sorry tales, but I suppose 2013 was an exciting year. It was when Wigan Athletic won the cup against Man City. We went 0-1 up with a Eunan O’Kane goal against Wigan in the fourth round and were 20 minutes away from producing the biggest shock of the round as Bournemouth were a Championship team then and Wigan were in the Premier League. Wigan got a goal back and we took them to a replay, but we were beaten by a Mauro Boselli goal. Still, we could say we were just a few minutes away from knocking out the eventual winners and who would have though Wigan would go on to do that and get relegated in the same season?

Finally, a prediction for the game please?
I think it is going to be tighter than the league game we saw the other week. It is going to be a 1-0 result or a 0-1 result. I just see a goal in it and it could go either way.

Thanks to Peter for answering our questions. You can check out his website at Cherry Chimes and give him a tweet on Twitter should it end up being an eight goal thriller rather than 1-0 or 0-1 he’s predicted (it won’t)