2005/2006 Season Preview - BOURNEMOUTH

Bournemouth: Dorset Stadium: Fitness First Stadium. 9600. All seated. Nickname: The Cherries Hate: Portsmouth, Southampton, Brighton, Reading. Last Meeting: 11th Feb 2003 LD3 Bournemouth A L 0-3 Bournemouth: the city where old people go on holiday. It's the English Llandudno. It's a popular resort, and a good night out so I've been told, but I have to admit, its reputation precedes it. The only time I've been there was on a family holiday (I know, I know…) and the place was FULL of coffin dodgers. No doubt a fair amount of these were tourists, but why do all the old people want to go on holiday to Bournemouth? Is it the geriatric Ibiza? All this ill-informed nonsense has negligible relevance to the football team, but I'm struggling to find things to say about them so this is all just filler material, including that last bit about filler material, and that bit. Right, enough of this nonsense; let's inject some professionality into proceedings. Bournemouth gained a great deal of publicity in 1997 when they became the first club in Europe to be owned by the fans and ran as a community football team. Trust leader Trevor Watkins became chairman in June of that year, although the club was still saddled with large debts, and financial difficulties would continue to plague the Cherries for years to come, especially with more money owed to builders for the redevelopment of Dean Court that took place during 2001. Bournemouth hit the headlines on the pitch in 2004 when James Hayter came off the bench in a match against Wrexham to score the fastest hat-trick in league history, a feat he achieved in only 140 seconds (or 2 minutes and 20 seconds to the older folk). Hayter is still with the club, although everything he's done since has been a bit of an anti-climax… The Cherries have spent 15 out of the last 16 years in League 1. Their relegation to the basement bringing to an end a 12-year stint in the third tier. Since bouncing straight back up via the play-offs in 2003, the club has twice narrowly missed out on a play-off spot, finishing 9th and 8th respectively in the last two seasons. Manager Sean O'Driscoll, has been busy in the close season as he prepares for to push the club that step further and make it into the play-offs. Despite having limited resources he has managed to re-sign important players such as Portuguese striker Dani Rodrigues, Stephen Purchase and Shaun Maher, as well as making the loan signing of Aston Villa midfielder Stephen Cooke permanent. Coupled with established players such as Warren Cummings and midfield star John Spicer, the Cherries have the base of a squad that will be competing in the top 10 this term, although they did miss out on Bristol City winger Marc Goodfellow to…Swansea. The star player to watch out for this season will surely be midfielder John Spicer. The former Arsenal trainee has impressed since his arrival at Bournemouth in 2004. The subject of much transfer speculation this summer, keeping hold of the midfielder will be vital to the team's progress this term. John sports a decent taste in popular culture: Only Fools and Horses, Pulp Fiction and Oasis, and claims to model his game on that of Patrick Viera, which is nice. Special mention must go to the poster known as 'rob0' from the Bournemouth Rivals website Rednblack.net. The man's single-minded dedication to the Bournemouth 'longest thread' is terrifying. It is said that, given a typewriter and enough time, a monkey will eventually type out the entire works of Shakespeare. Unfortunately, rob0, given a keyboard and 2 years of uninterrupted freedom, has so far managed to write nothing of note apart from 'COME ON THE CHERRIES' a few thousand times with no response. From anyone. At all. He is a machine. They will finish: 7th

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