[Lord Snooty]

AFC Bournemouth v Huddersfield Town
The Sky Bet Championship
Saturday October 23rd - 15:00 ko
at the Vitality Stadium

Huddersfield Town travel to Boscombe, a suburb of Bournemouth, to the Vitality Stadium aka Dean Court on Saturday afternoon for the latest chapter in our Play Off quest.

Head coach, Carlos Corberán, made a boat load of changes to the starting XI for the disastrous trip down to the south coast town last season and following the unchanged line up for Wednesday night's drab nil nil draw with Birmingham City, he may do again. If he does, he has plenty of experience to choose from, unlike last season, when the squad was very underwhelming.

One definite change will be the absence of young Levi Colwill, the winner of the first stage of this season's yellow card race. He's the first to get to five, way ahead of the pre season favourite, Jonathan Hogg. So that will mean a start for Naby Sarr, even though he was one of those given the runaround by Bournemouth's strikers last December. He'll have Tom Lees and Matty Pearson alongside him this time and they have looked like a solid defensive unit so far. Saturday afternoon will be a severe test.

The Cherries will be without David Brooks, who has been a bit of trouble to us in the last few seasons, scoring one in the 5-0 defeat down there last season. Well he's got trouble of his own now, having been diagnosed with Stage 2 Hodgkin lymphoma, which is a cancer of the lymphatic system, an important part of the immune system. He has had to put football on hold for the time being while he has treatment and obviously, we all here wish him a speedy recovery.

Tickets: Adults - £30
Under-21s - £17
Over-65s - £17
Full-time students - £17
Under-18s (Season Card holder) - £7
Under-18s (Non-Season Card holder) - £17

Ambulant disabled supporters should pay their relevant price class and will receive a companion ticket free of charge.

Tickets for wheelchair users are charged at £5 with a companion free of charge.

Coach tickets are available at £28 per person, with coaches departing the St. Andrew’s Road car park at 7.15am on match day. Fans can park in the St. Andrew’s Road car park.

A brief history of AFC Bournemouth: formed in eighteen hundred n frozen stiff, we have very little to go on for those early days. There was a Boscombe FC who played in King's Park, when local businessman, J.E. Cooper-Dean leased some wasteland next to the park and made it into a football ground. This was in 1910 and Boscombe FC took residence there and named the ground Dean Court in Mr Cooper-Dean's honour.

When the Football League was extended in 1920, most of the clubs in the Southern League quit to form Division Three (South). Boscombe FC then joined the Southern League to make up part of this huge loss. They didn't stay long though. In 1923, they decided to have a go themselves at getting into the Football League. Part of their election campaign was to extend the name to Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic FC so as to represent a wider area.

That campaign was successful and they played their first Div 3(S) game at Swindon in August 1923, followed by the first home game against the same team a week later, gaining their first point in a 0-0 draw.

Bournemouth and Boscombe stayed in the 3rd division for a record number of successive seasons, even staying in Div 3 when the North and South Divisions went national and Division Four was formed in 1958. They were in the 3rd from 1923 til 1970 when finally they got relegated to Div 4. Their best season from these years was 1947/48 when they finished as runners up to QPR, when only the champions went up. They also had their record win in this time. Unfortunately, their 10-0 win against Northampton Town was disqualified as it took part in the abandoned 1939/40 season, which was struck off after only three matches.

So down in the 4th for the 1970/71 season, which was just for the one year as they bounced straight back up as runners up to Notts County. That one season was the only one that B&BAFC had outside the 3rd division because in 1971, they changed their name to AFC Bournemouth, not because they had gone bust and reformed like some teams now who stick AFC at the front of their names to distinguish from the old club. No, they just did it so they would be top of the alphabetic league.

Anyway, the new name had a positive effect on the pitch and they almost had back to back promotions, finishing 3rd when only the top two went up. But that didn't last long and they got relegated again in 1975, finishing 4th from bottom, four places above Huddersfield Town who finished bottom.

AFCB had seven seasons in Div 4, coming back up in 1982 in 4th place. This was followed by six seasons in Div 3 with their former player and West Ham legend Harry Redknapp as manager. And at the end of that sixth season, 1986/87, they finally made it up into the 2nd Division. They did it in style too, going up as champions with 97 points.

Before that though, in 1984, Harry led them to a famous FA Cup victory over Manchester United and then glory as the first ever winners of the Pizza Paintpot Windscreen Trophy, then known as the Associate Members Cup. The Final was just a one off match played at, no not Wembley, but the magnificent Boothferry Park in Hull. Don't know if they tossed a coin for home advantage, but Hull had it and didn't use it as the Cherries came out on top, winning 2-1 with goals from Milton Graham and Paul Morrell.

Harry stuck around for ten years at the club, eventually taking them back down again in 1990, before leaving to go back to West Ham in 1992. Bournemouth spent the rest of the decade in the 3rd tier, but made it to Wembley for the first time in 1998 in the Auto Windscreens Final, but got beat by Grimsby Town this time.

They were relegated in 2002, but came back up straight away as they made the Play Offs for the first time. They beat Bury 3-1 in the semis on aggregate, then faced Lincoln City in the Final at the Millennium Stadium. It was the Fletcher boys who made the headlines. Club legend Steve Fletcher opened the scoring, Carl Fletcher scored twice and goals from Stephen Purches and Garreth O'Connor secured a 5-2 victory and promotion to what was by now called Division Two, then became League One in the following season. Whatever, it was more 3rd Division football for the Boscombe faithful.

That was with Sean O'Driscoll in charge. He had been appointed when Mel Machin was given the boot, but left in 2006 to be replaced by Kevin Bond. However, the club was in a financial muddle and was plunged into administration. They had ten points deducted and were relegated. Worse was to follow as they started the next season with a 17 point deduction. Bond was given the bullet, replaced by ex player Jimmy Quinn, who didn't hang around for long and he was then replaced by a huge gamble. They appointed former player Eddie Howe as manager at the ripe old age of 31, having just been forced to retire through injury. He was the youngest manager in the League and the Cherries were still ten points adrift at the foot of the table. Mission Impossible!

No. It was in fact, a Great Escape. They secured safety on the last day, beating Grimsby 2-1 and by June, a new consortium had taken over and things were about to get a whole lot better. First of all, Howe led them to promotion to League One, once again as runners up to Notts County. He then quit though and took the job at Championship club Burnley, leaving his former team mate Lee Bradbury in charge. Bradbury got them to the Play Offs in 2011, where they were soundly thrashed in a penalty shoot out by Huddersfield Town. He was replaced by Paul Groves, who didn't last long because the Prodigal Son had done his stint in the wilderness of Lancashire and so returned to the south coast slumbering minions in October 2012 and set about the task of challenging for a place in the Prima Donna League. A ridiculous notion that somehow came true.

In Howe's first season back, they won promotion to the Championship as runners up to Doncaster Rovers and then in his first full season back in charge they finished in 10th place in the Championship, their highest ever finish at the time. The next season saw them rack up their record victory (see earlier note about the abandoned 10-0 win) when they won 8-0 away at Birmingham City and by the time the season ended, they had won promotion as Championship champions, beating Watford by a point.

They had five seasons in the Premier League, with their highest finish being 9th in 2016/17. They came back down eventually in 2020, with Howe ending his 8 years as manager, being replaced by another former player in Jason Tindall, who had been Howe's assistant. He didn't last long, being sacked in February with the club sat in a desperately low league position of 2nd. They dropped even further down the table to 6th under the leadership of Leeds thug, Jonathan Woodgate, who guided them to defeat in the Play Off semis, 2-3 against Brentford.

Head to Head




It's level pegging in the head to head with 18 wins apiece and 19 draws.

Four of those draws came in one season. That was the 2010/11 season, we had Lee Clark in charge and they had Lee Bradbury. We drew at the Galpharm 2-2 in September. Josh McQuoid gave the Cherries the lead, but then Antony Kay equalised just before half time. Gary Roberts put us ahead from the penalty spot (yes, a penalty!) just after the interval, but then Marc Pugh levelled up near the end. It was us getting the late equaliser down at theirs in February. Cleckheaton's finest, Danny Cadamarteri got it in the 89th minute after Michael Symes had given them a 79th minute lead.

By the end of the season, Town were on a 24 match unbeaten run (in the league  ) and had finished in 3rd place, whereas Bournemouth had snuck in in sixth, one point ahead of Leyton Orient and Exeter City and a whopping 17 points behind us. We were big favourites to win, but we all know that that's not always the case with the Play Offs.

We set off very early to the south coast for a Saturday dinner time Sky Sports kick off and our future ice skating star, Kevin Kilbane opened the scoring in the 22nd minute, heading in from a corner. Soon after though, Bournemouth were awarded a penalty, conceded by Town's goalie, Ian Bennett. Danny Ings took it, but super saver Bennett saved it. All was looking good, but the Cherries came back into it in the second half and when Donal McDermott equalised on the hour, we were quite relieved to come away level after the first leg.

The second leg, on the Wednesday, was an all time classic encounter, swinging both ways with 8 yellow cards, one red, six goals and a penalty shoot out. All this creating one of the most tense but yet brilliant atmospheres ever felt at the Stade de Kirklees. Town took the lead in the 26th minute, once again from a Gary Roberts corner, Lee Peltier scoring this time. But then in the 44th minute, Bournemouth were awarded another pen. Steve Lovell took this one and scored. So the scores would be level at half time. No. Nineteen year old striker, Danny Ward, on loan from Premier League side Bolton Wanderers struck a magnificent shot past the Bournemouth keeper to give us the interval lead.

The intensity stepped up even further and the nervousness of the crowd grew worse when after 63 minutes, Lovell levelled the scores at two all on the night. It stayed that way for the rest of normal time and so we had to endure another 30 minutes, which looked to be going disastrously for us when Danny Ings gave them the lead for the first time in the tie, just before the break.

The crowd were not going to let the boys just whimper away from this and ramped up the noise to well over maximum. We got a corner, taken again by Roberts. It was another perfect one and who rose highest this time? It was Antony Kay powering a header into the back of the net, sending the stadium roof flying off it's hinges like never seen before. The match ended 4-4 on aggregate, but not before Bournemouth had been reduced to ten men with Jason Pearce receiving a straight red from Neil Swarbrick for a wild mis-timed tackle.

Penalties then. Michael Symes scored first, then Lee Novak levelled. Up stepped Liam Feeney. Saved by Bennett!

Wardy stepped up and made it 2-1 to Town. Future Town disappointment, Anton Robinson became a disappointment for the Cherries, missing the target. Kevin Kilbane came forward and smashed it home, making it 3-1. Shaun Cooper made it 3-2, meaning that if Town scored next, we would be through to the Final. Even if we missed, we still had one in hand, but it was that boy Kay and he hit the underside of the bar, giving us a momentary sense of shock, but it bounced in off and into the back of the net and the crowd went WILD!!

The Town players sprinted from the halfway line to celebrate with Kay and Bennett, but were met with a wall of Town fans running onto the pitch in sheer delight.

Shame about the Final.                 


I need a lie down after all that. So let's lower the heart rate and go back to a dreary Saturday afternoon in late September 1973, when these two teams met for the first time. Town were on a rotten downward spiral and were playing in the 3rd division for the first ever time. Crowds were dwindling at Leeds Road as the local economy was on a downturn as well with strikes against the evil Tory government biting deep and only 5,360 turned up to see Alan Gowling score from the penalty spot in a 1-1 draw. Bournemouth won 1-0 down at theirs, just before Christmas and just before the country was plunged into darkness and the infamous three day working week.

By the time Bournemouth came back up to Leeds Road in the following season, the Heath government had been kicked out and celebrity Town fan Harold Wilson was back in Downing Street. Billy McGinley and Jimmy Lawson scored in a 2-2 draw. Brian O'Neill scored down there in another draw later in the season, a season that ended with both clubs being relegated to Division Four.

We just couldn't beat Bournemouth though. Draws and defeats were the norm until finally, in our tenth meeting, we went and won at last. It was a meaningless match as well. The final game of 77/78, nothing to play for, we were 11th, they were 17th and only 1,638 spectators turned up for what was the lowest ever crowd for a first team match at Leeds Road. As I said though, we won. Two nil with goals from Wayne Goldthorpe and an Ian Holmes penalty.

We lost 0-2 down at Dean Court in the next season, but won at home, 2-1 with Peter Fletcher and Terry Armstrong scoring. Next season though, we did the double over them on the way to winning the 4th Division title under the management of the brilliant Mick Buxton. David Cowling, Fletcher again and Micky Laverick scoring in our first win at Dean Court. Ian Robins and Keith Hanvey scored in a 2-0 win back at Leeds Road.

Peter Fletcher

We had one season together in 82/83 as Town went up again. Only one goal in the two matches, Mark Lillis scoring in a 1-0 win down at theirs. Bubble blowin' geezer, Harry Redknapp got them up in 1987 and so we had one season together in Division Two. David Cork and Ian Banks scored for us in a 2-0 win down at their place in November, remarkable because we were bottom of the division and had been battered at Maine Road just two weeks before.

We did the double in 94/95 as Neil Warnock led us to promotion. Their first visit to the McAlpine was a 3-1 win for the Terriers with Andy Booth, Ronnie Jepson and Pat Scully scoring. That was followed by a 2-0 win down there. The Rocket on target again as well as Lee Duxbury.

Our one and only FA Cup meeting was next. In January 1998, a 3rd round match and it was Marcus Stewart scoring the only goal of the game down at Dean Court on a cold January Tuesday night. Then the next league meetings came in the 3rd tier in 2001/02 as we did the double over them again, making it six consecutive victories against the Cherries. We were becoming a bit of a bogey team for Bournemouth and by the time we beat them in the 2011 Play Offs, it was 19 games unbeaten against them. That came to an end in our promotion season of 2011/12, when they did the double over us, 1-0 at ours and 2-0 at theirs on a freezing cold Easter Monday.

They followed us up to the Championship in the next season and we beat them 5-1 at home (Adam Hammill, James Vaughan 3, Oliver Norwood), but lost 1-2 down there. They came up here for the first game of the 2014/15 season and scored after something like 20 seconds. That was Marc Pugh. Callum Wilson made it two at half time and then Yann Kermorgant and another from Wilson made it 4-0 at full time and it was full time too for Mark Robins, who walked out/was sacked after the game.

Bournemouth went up to the Premier League and we followed them up there in 2017 and so the two clubs, who had once attracted the lowest crowd at Leeds Road in the 4th division in 1978, were to meet in the top tier of English football at last. Both games were big wins for the home team in that first Prima Donna season. They won 4-0 at theirs and at ours in February, a televised Sunday dinner time game, we pumped them 4-1. Wee Alex Pritchard scored his first goal for us, with Steve Mounié getting two (one of which was ridiculously given as a Steve Cook own goal), and Rajiv van La Parra rounding it off in injury time from the penalty spot.

That was our last win against them and they are now on a four match winning run over us and we have gone 8 games down there without a win. The last time we won at Dean Court was a 1-0 win in August 2007, a goal scored by Luke Beckett.

So what's going on down at the old Dean Court? Managed nowadays by Scott Parker, the former Thunderbirds pilot.

The eldest son of Aloysius Parker (butler and chauffeur to Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward), Scott is named after American astronaut Scott Carpenter. Educated at Yale and Oxford Universities, Scott was decorated for valour during his service with the United States Air Force before taking up his duties with International Rescue. As pilot of the quick response craft Thunderbird 1, he was usually first at the danger zone and typically served as field commander on all rescue operations. He also took on secondary duties as co-pilot of the spacecraft Thunderbird 3, was an occasional relief occupant of the Thunderbird 5 space station, and led the organisation from Tracy Island whenever Jeff Tracy was absent.

However, in 2019, he decided to pack in the rescue game and moved to London, England to become a football coach next to the famous River Thames at Fulham Cottage Soccer Club. He was soon made Head Coach following the dismissal of the fiendish Italian, Dr Claudio Ranieri.

Despite all his years with International Rescue though, Scotty couldn't save Fulham Cottage from sinking down to the bottom of the table and relegation to the Sky Rocket Championship. He managed to get them back up again by beating fellow London, England soccer team Brentford Nylons in the Season End World Series National Soccer Play Offs at Wembley Stadium in London, England.

The soccer being played by the Cottagers was not F.A.B. though and so Scotty resigned his post and retired to the south coast city of Bournemouth and hung around with notorious London ex pats like Max "the Undertaker" Bygraves and Harry "the Hood" Redknapp, who persuaded young Scotty to hang up his pipe and slippers to come out of retirement to manage the rescue mission of sleeping giant Bournemouth City Soccer Club.

Tuesday night's line up away at Smoke-on-Stench:

42 Mark Travers - 22 year old Irish keeper, made his debut as a 19 yo in PL v Spurs.
17 Jack Stacey - Defensive midfielder signed from Luton in 2019.
24 Gary Cahill - 35 year old ex Chelsea,winner of 2 PL titles, 2 FA Cups, 1 League Cup, 2 Europa Leagues and 1 Champions League. 61 England caps.
5 Lloyd Kelly - 23 year old ex Bristol City centre back.
33 Jordan Zemura - 21 year old left back. London born Zimbabwe international.
8 Jefferson Lerma - Colombian international midfielder.
26 Gavin Kilkenny - Irish u21 international midfielder.
29 Philip Billing - 3 times winner of HTFC young player of the year.
10 Ryan Christie - Ex Caley Thistle and Celtic, Scottish international midfielder.
9 Dominic Solanke - Linked with a move to Town from Liverpool, signed for AFCB instead for £19m.
32 Jaidon Anthony - 21 year old winger.

Subs:
1 Ørjan Nyland - Norwegain ex Villa keeper.
6 Chris Mepham - Welsh international centre back.
11 Emiliano Marcondes - Ex Brentford Danish midfielder.
18 Jamal Lowe - Jamaican striker, ex Pompey, Wigan, Swansea.
19 Junior Stanislas - 31 year old, ex West Ham and Burnley winger.
22 Ben Pearson - Ex PNE midfielder, signed in January.
27 Morgan Rogers - 19 year old striker on loan from Man City.

Club connections: The first time I saw Philip Billing, he was playing for the Town juniors in an FA Youth Cup match. I knew right then that he would make it to the top of the footballing tree. He's not quite there yet, but he will do. Many a Town fan has questioned his attitude and his laid back manner has been mistaken for bone idleness. Even among my friends, I have met contrasting opinions. One said, whilst watching him for the first time in that Play Off winning season, said he was absolutely brilliant. Whereas another mate, who's watched Town since the 60s and has seen some dodgy performers, said he was the worst player he'd ever seen in a Town shirt.
Somebody in the AFC Bournemouth camp must've liked what he saw, as they forked out around fifteen million pounds for him in July 2019, a club record fee for Town. Since then, he has won his first international cap for Denmark and helped the Cherries end their stay in the Prima Donna League. According to Paul Ogden, commentating on our visit to Dean Court last season, their fans seem to have split opinions about him as well, with some asking Oggy if he could take him back to Huddersfield after the game.
Surely they've all come around by now though. This season already, he has bagged six goals, which is the same as he got in his six seasons at the John Smith's, and that's on top of the eight he got last season.

Well that lanky streak o' piss was quite recent, so I don't have to go over his story really. One connection from a very long time ago though is Leslie Knighton. He came to Leeds Road in 1912 as assistant manager to Dick Pudan, after having a similar role at Manchester City. Pudan couldn't stop the Town's slide down the Division Two table and was dismissed towards the end of the season, leaving Knighton as caretaker for one match, a 0-3 defeat at Turf Moor. Arthur Fairclough took over and won the final game of the season, thus avoiding the ignominy of seeking re-election and he kept Leslie on as his right hand man, throughout the wartime years until 1919, when he left to become manager of Arsenal. The Gunners had just been promoted to the First Division, not through the usual means, but as a thank you from the Football League for their efforts during the war.
So they weren't one of the top clubs in the country by then. Knighton stayed there for six years and had a bit of a love/hate relationship with the Board of Directors and was involved in a doping scandal after an FA Cup match in 1925. This, along with lowly finishes in the League, led to his sacking in that summer, to be replaced by the legendary Herbert Chapman from Huddersfield Town. The Arsenal chairman said later that despite all that Chapman achieved, he thought that sacking Knighton was a mistake. How different would history have been if he'd gone with his instincts and we'd had Chapman for a few more years?
Arsenal went on to be the next big thing in the game and Knighton went to Bournemouth for three seasons, finishing 8th, 7th and 14th in the 3rd Division (South).
After his stint down Boscombe way, he went to Birmingham, taking them to the 1931 Cup Final. Then Chelsea, where he had a falling out with ex Town star Alex Jackson, then on to Shrewsbury. He retired in 1948 and went back to Bournemouth. Not to the football club, but to a job as a Golf Club secretary, but he was suffering from ill health and died there in 1959, aged 72.

Another one who managed us both is Mel Machin. He played for them in the 70s, having signed from Gillingham. He started out his career though at Port Vale under the management of Stanley Matthews, but he got shut of him for talking back too much. Anyway, he had three seasons at Bournemouth before going to Norwich in the First Division.
When he finished playing, he coached at Carrow Road, then went to Man City as their manager. He managed to get them promoted and gave Alex Ferguson the lowest point of his career when City beat United 5-1 in 1989. That made him a City hero, but it didn't stop him getting sacked a couple of months later.
He went to Barnsley and had four years there, but left because he didn't agree with them selling their best players. He then went back to Dean Court to manage AFC Bournemouth, who were looking to replace Tony Pulis. He got Bournemouth to one of their greatest days so far in their history, a trip to Wembley for the Auto Paintpot Trophy Final, which they lost to Grimsby Town. He officially retired in 2002, but came out of retirement in the next year to become assistant to Mick Wadsworth at Huddersfield Town. When old Wadders got the boot, Mel took over with Town 24th out of 24 teams in the 3rd division table. His first game saw a 2-3 defeat at Notts County, but then hopes were raised as two goals each for Martin Smith and a young kid called Jon Stead gave us a 4-0 win at home to Chesterfield. That was followed by a 1-0 win down at Swindon and the Great Escape II was on. It was soon off again though. Those two wins were Mel's only ones as Town manager and when we eventually got relegated, he got the sack as the club went into administration.

Some others to have played for both:-
Benik Afobe: Town 35 games, 8 goals. AFCB 70 games, 11 goals.
Marcus Browning: 33 games for Town. Won Play Offs with AFCB in 2003 (118 games, 3 goals).
Tommy Elphick: AFCB Player of the Year in promotion to PL season (142 games, 5 goals). 14 games for Town.
Neil Hague: AFCB 89 games, 7 goals. HTFC 25 games, 2 goals.
Scott Malone: AFCB 37 games, 6 goals. Town 28 games.
Donal McDermott: 35 games 3 goals for them. 14 games, 1 goal for us.
Scott McDonald: 13 games, 1 goal for Town. 8 games, 1 goal for AFCB.
Anton Robinson: AFCB 117 and 10. Town 32 and 1.
Elliott Ward: AFCB 28 games, Town 5 games.




Bournemouth in popular culture: The place has a reputation as somewhere for the rich to retire to. Whether this is true or not, I don't know, but there are some places in the area that are full of ex footballers with pots full of dosh, like the Redknapps, the Souness's and the Pulis's.

Before football got all it's money though, Bournemouth was full of proper culture. Literary culture. Famous residents over the years have included Percival Christopher Wren, who wrote Beau Legs or something, Frederick Escreet Smith, author of 633 Squadron and John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, who wrote some gobbledegook about Rings. He lived most of his life there and died there in 1973.

And there's more. Frankenstein author, Mary Shelley. Robert Louis Stevenson wrote about Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde whilst living in the town and more recently, Bill Bryson worked at the Bournemouth Echo.

The Bournemouth Bombshell was the nickname of champion boxer, Freddie Mills. He won the World Light Heavyweight title in 1948 and later in life did a bit of acting and was one of the first "celebrities", the like of which we have absolutely millions of today. He appeared in a couple of Carry On films and bought a night club in that there London. Then it all came to a mysterious end in 1965 when he was murdered outside his club in Chinatown. Was it a gangland murder? Was it suicide? There was a BBC documentary about it a few years ago which was very interesting.

Another sporting World Champion from Bournemouth is 1977 Wimbledon Ladies Champ, Virginia Wade, who was the last British woman to win a Grand Slam until young Emma Raducanu went and won one last month.

Tragic comedian, Tony Hancock, was brought up in Bournemouth. His dad ran the Railway Hotel in Holdenhurst Road and also worked as a comedian and entertainer. Tony's most famous for his BBC radio show, Hancock's Half Hour. Here's probably the most famous sketch from it.

Bournemouth's most famous resident was probably Max Bygraves, who once sang a song about toothbrushes. I won't bore you with that one.  There are much better ones to choose from. Andy Summers of The Police was born there. John Hawken of the Nashville Teens, busker Don Partridge, Gordon Haskell and John Wetton of King Crimson, Hammond organist Zoot Money and the drummer from the 70s rock band Nazareth, Darrell Sweet were all from the town as well.

You're not getting to watch all of those though, but here's The Police......

'ow to get theere an' wheere to sup: The post code for sat nav is BH7 7AF. There's a huge car park right next to the ground, so no problem there. However, it's all one way out after the game and by the time we had got anywhere near the exit last time, the players were washed, changed, interviewed, back on the bus and police escorted out of there while we were losing the will to live.

Pubs? Well there's beer in the ground, which is just as well because the Queens Park Hotel on Holdenhurst Road, the nearest to the ground, is home fans only. A quarter of an hours walk away in Boscombe, there are some pubs that let visiting fans in. The Mello Mello Bar and Baxter's are on Christchurch Road. The Bell Inn is opposite Pokesdown Railway Station, which is the nearest station to the Vitality. Bournemouth town centre is about three miles away, so if you arrive by train at Bournemouth Central and go get your beers theere, it may be worth popping along to the next station at Pokesdown, which is a twenty minutes walk to the ground, when you've finished terrorising the locals.

Recent form - last 6 matches:

Town 0-0 Birmingham
Town 2-0 Hull
Luton 0-0 Town
Town 3-2 Blackburn
Swansea 1-0 Town
Town 0-2 Forest

Stoke 0-1 AFCB
Bristol C 0-2 AFCB
AFCB 2-1 Sheff Utd
Posh 0-0 AFCB
AFCB 2-1 Luton
Cardiff 0-1 AFCB

Town are 6th in the Championship table with 21 points. Bournemouth are TOP with 31.

Leading scorers:

Terriers:
Danny Ward (3)
Matty Pearson (3)
Josh Koroma (2)

Cherries:
Dominic Solanke (9)
Phillip Billing (6)
David Brooks (3)
Jordan Zemura (3)


October the 23rd down the ages: How did we get on in previous matches played on this date?

1909: Nottingham Forest Reserves (h) Midland League, WON 4-2 (Joe Jee, David Ewing, William McCreadie, A. Rowley)
1915: Derby County (h) Wartime League, WON 4-1 (Billy Smith 2, Jim Baker, Charlie Slade)
1920: West Bromwich Albion (h) Div 1, WON 5-1 (Sammy Taylor, Frank Mann pen, Ralph Shields 2, Ernie Islip)
1926: Burnley (a) Div 1, drew 2-2 (George Brown 2)
1937: Preston North End (a) Div 1, drew 1-1 (Bobby Barclay)
1943: Bradford City (a) Wartime League, WON 3-1 (Jimmy Glazzard, Billy Price, Joseph Poole)
1948: Preston North End (h) Div 1, lost 0-2
1954: Everton (h) Div 1, WON 2-1 (Jimmy Watson, Jimmy Glazzard)
1965: Wolverhampton Wanderers (h) Div 2, drew 1-1 (Tony Leighton)
1971: Liverpool (a) Div 1, lost 0-2
1976: Aldershot (a) Div 4, lost 0-1
1979: Northampton Town (a) Div 4, lost 2-4 (David Cowling, Dennis Byatt og)
1982: Cardiff City (h) Div 3, WON 4-0 (Mark Lillis 4)
1990: AFC Bournemouth (h) Div 3, lost 1-3 (Kieran O'Regan)
1993: Burnley (a) Div 2, drew 1-1 (Phil Starbuck)
1996: Middlesbrough (a) League Cup, lost 1-5 (Andy Payton)
1999: Fulham (h) Division One (2nd tier), drew 1-1 (Clyde Wijnhard)
2001: Northampton Town (a) Division Two (3rd tier), WON 3-0 (Andy Booth 3)
2004: Milton Keynes Dons (h) League One (3rd tier), WON 3-1 (Pawel Abbott 2, 1 pen, Junior Mendes)
2010: Plymouth Argyle (a) League One (3rd tier), lost 1-2 (Anthony Pilkington)
2012: Peterborough United (a) Championship, lost 1-3 (Adam Hammill)
2019: Middlesbrough (h) Championship, drew 0-0

Eight wins, eight losses and six draws.

Jim Baker, who scored in the 1915 Wartime League match against Derby, is more well known down the other end of the A62. He was at Town for six years, but was one of the players who left for Leeds when they attempted to do an "MK Dons" on us in 1920. He was their first club captain, skippered them to promotion to the First Division and later in life, served on their Board of Directors.

Ralph Shields, I have mentioned in previous match threads. He scored on this date in 1920 against WBA, but they were his last Town goals. Despite a great record of 21 goals in 45 games, he was sold to 3rd division Exeter City and at 28 years old, his career was coming slowly to an end. I'll mention it again about his war record. He served as a bombardier in WW1 and served in the Aussie Army in WW2 after emigrating and lying about his age. He was captured by the Japs and died in 1944 in a POW camp.

Jimmy Watson, who scored in 1954 against Everton, signed for us from Motherwell, having earlier won the Scottish Cup with them.

Does anything highlight our drop down the Football League ladder in the 70s more than the two fixtures in 1971 and 1976? We played at Anfield in '71 on this date and then 5 years later we were turning out and losing at the Recreation Ground, Aldershot in Division 4.

Mark Lillis scored all four goals in the match against Cardiff in 1982. This was shortly after a local butcher had agreed to give him a t-bone steak for every goal he scored. Poor bloke was bankrupt by the end of the season.

The 3-1 defeat at home to Bournemouth in 1990 is the programme image in the Head to Head section above. Let's hope for a 3-1 win for the away team in this match 31 years on.

Bournemouth Anagrams: Some football related, some not.

1. Ham McNeil 
   
2. Rotund Ace 
   
3. Dummy Nasser 
   
4. Nanny Digs 
   
5. BBC Moose 
   
6. Camelot Snot 
   
7. AD Blueberry 
   
8. Dr Hanky Rapper 
   
9. Rat Sprocket 
   
10. Slime Fiddler 
    
    
    
    

[talkSAFT]

[theo_luddite]

Simply marvellous how you delve into the life and times of players and personalities Snoots. Just one thing on "beam me up" Scotty's nephew.

..... "persuaded young Scotty to hang up his pipe and slippers to come out of retirement to manage the rescue mission of sleeping giant Bournemouth City Soccer Club." That should be Bournemouth City Soccerball Club., but given the shear amount of research and complete and utter entertaining bollox you've put into this, I'll forgive you.

Oh, and looking at that old photo of 'appy 'arry - yeh, it's quite believable that he can't sign his name on a cheque, let alone read one.

[Lord Snooty]

"Bournemouth are performing really well. They are aggressive in defence and manage well with the ball,” Carlos said, previewing the Cherries.

"We need to be perfect in defence and attack.

"The toughest opponents demand your best performance.

"We are going to try and compete in the best way.

"It's a tough week, but that's what makes the Championship great.

"It's a privilege to be in the Championship and play in these types of games.

"It's a completely different game to last season.

"Our dynamic is totally different.

"The only thing that is the same is that Bournemouth is a tough opponent.

"They are attacking very well, and that means they can defend very well too.

"That makes it a challenge for our attackers, but we will try to find the harmony in attack to create chances.”

Also providing some team news, the Head Coach added:

"We expect to have Ryan Schofield to be back in training next Monday.

"Mipo was unwell in the week before the game with Hull City, and only trained once before the Birmingham game.

"He should be available for selection again against Bournemouth."

Town fans can still purchase their iFollow Pass for our trip to Bournemouth on Saturday 23 October for just £2.50. With full audio coverage of game from pre-game to post match reaction with Radio Leeds’ Paul Ogden, there’s no better way to follow our 3pm kick-off.

[Lord Snooty]

Town fans can still purchase their iFollow Pass for our trip to Bournemouth on Saturday 23 October for just £2.50. With full audio coverage of game from pre-game to post match reaction with Radio Leeds’ Paul Ogden, there’s no better way to follow our 3pm kick-off.

Cheeky gets! That's audio only. Thought there must be a catch for it to be so cheap.

[theo_luddite]

£2.50 to listen to the old cats whiskers? I'll see if I can get a tee time for a sensible price instead. It won't change the score.

[ritchiebaby]

Well done, Snooty. It took me a long time to get through it all and I'm sure I'll need to read it another 2 or 3 times to make sure I haven't missed anything.

What I did glean was that Anagram No 1 is Mel Machin. I'll stop there as I don't want you to spend all your time picking up theo's toys.

Virginia Wade - well what can I say, as a a twenty something I bought a tennis magazine solely because there were numerous photos of Miss Wade in action.
Tony Hancock - Stone me, one of the all-time greats, especially with a young Sid James (lecherous even then) and an Aussie called ?????

[theo_luddite]

8 is said 'appy 'arry

Good goal by Smith Rowe

[Lord Snooty]

Bill Kerr, Ritchie?

[ritchiebaby]

That's him, Snooty.