LFL: B'MOUTH

After looking like we were going to be hammered we fought back to record a tremendous win. Our never-say-die character was once again clearly demonstrated.

BEFORE

After last Saturday's disappointment I'm hoping for some joy this afternoon and I think we'll come away with at least a point. Bournemouth are currently one place below us and their recent form hasn't been good with only one win out of the last five league games. Their away form hasn't been at all good all season whereas our crowd has given us a major boost so far. It sounds like Mundle is just about ready for first team consideration and he may well be on the bench today. We went through so many players during our eight years in the wilderness that I'm often pushed to recall a lot of them and Semenyo is a case in point. He'll certainly be a man to watch today, though, as he's their main threat upfront. I'm in London and don't know how I'll access the match but I'm hoping to get it online in some format. Match prediction: 2-1 to us.

I got the team-news just after 1.45 and there were two changes in the starting line-up from the Fulham game with Alderete and Talbi coming in for Hume and Geertruida, who were both on the bench. Accompanying them there were Rigg and Mundle but O'Nien wasn't featuring at all. Semenyo was starting for them. I managed to get the commentary on without difficulty after all. It was raining heavily but our fans were in great voice as we kicked-off.

THE MATCH

Talbi had a shot on target in the opening minutes and in our next attack there was a shout for handball but nothing came of it. After we'd done most of the pressing, Bournemouth took the lead in the seventh minute. Mukiele slipped on the wet surface and Roefs managed to push an Evanilson effort onto the post but Adli was there to hit in the rebound. We battled back and won the first corner of the game as the rain intensified. The corner went horribly wrong when Talbi gave the ball away and Bournemouth broke quickly. Adams saw that Roefs was off his line and lobbed the ball over him to make it 2-0 in the fifteenth minute. We had a mountain to climb but we'd climbed them before. We soon won two corners on the trot but the referee, Tim Robinson, blew for a foul against us. We were sounding wide open at times and Alderete received a yellow card for a foul when Bournemouth were about to break through.

Isidor had a good shot on target but it was straight at Petrovic in goal. Commentator Benno had been saying that we didn't have any movement upfront so that was more like it. Scott was booked for a foul on Xhaka and by the sound of it many of our fans thought it should have been a red. Next thing there was a VAR decision for a foul by Scott on Reinildo in their box and after an eternity the penalty was awarded. Benno thought that Scott should have got a second yellow but no action was taken. Anyway, Le Fee took the kick and scored and we were well back in the game in the thirtieth minute. In our next attack Mukiele got a shove in the back but I don't suppose we could expect two penalties within a few minutes and nothing was given. A Reinildo header went just wide of the right post in the thirty-ninth and Bournemouth were soon up the other end winning a corner. Benno said that Semenyo looked a threat every time he got the ball. There was bound to be a fair bit of added-time after the VAR delay but I was surprised when seven minutes were announced. Plenty of time for us to grab an equaliser and go in level. We won a corner about five minutes into that period but Le Fee's kick failed to beat the first man and when the ball came back Le Fee shot into the side-netting. It remained 1-2 as the half-time whistle went but after a disastrous opening quarter hour we'd fought our way back into the game.

During the break I wondered which changes we'd make and I could see Talbi being replaced, maybe by Mundle. I always like to see Mayenda being given some time later on.

As we kicked off again Cook had replaced Scott, no doubt as the latter had been heading for a second yellow. Within a minute of the restart Benno was emitting a long high-pitched whoop and it was in celebration of us equalising through a Traore shot into the right-hand corner after a great pass from Xhaka. Almost immediately Bournemouth had the ball in our net but finally an assistant referee raised his flag and the effort was ruled out. You could sense that there'd be more goals in the game... We survived two corners in a row around ten minutes in and the game continued to go from end to end. Not long after the hour-mark we made a triple change, bringing on Hume, Brobbey and Mundle for Talbi, Isidor and Troare, as Benno had correctly predicted. There was applause all round but an especially loud cheer for Mundle. Brobbey was immediately in the thick of things as we won our fifth corner. Hume made a different kind of impact as he was booked within a minute or two of coming on.

As we entered the final quarter it was anybody's game. The ref had a word with both captains as things had been getting on the heated side but next thing we were ahead when a corner from the left was headed in by Brobbey from about eight yards out. Bournemouth made a double switch and with twenty minutes or so to go it was going to be a hell of a ride till that final whistle. I had to get up and start pacing around and when I sat down again I noticed that BBC Sport were two minutes ahead of our commentary for some strange reason. Maybe I'd entered a timewarp but as long as we were still in the lead I wasn't bothered. Bournemouth made another couple of changes and the game was still going end to end. We conceded a free-kick in a dangerous spot and it took ages to be taken but finally Unal's effort went wide of the post. A Tavernier shot came off the bar and then Le Fee was replaced by Geertruida with four minutes on the clock. Bournemouth were doing most of the pressing as eight minutes of added-time were announced. I've no idea why there was so much. Brooks pushed Mukiele over and this resulted in both of them being yellow-carded for some reason. Sadiki went down injured for a while and then there was a cheer from our fans. It turned out that Cook had been red-carded for an elbow on Sadiki. So the game was extended even further and then Mundle was booked too. Brobbey was injured for a short while and then Roefs also went down for a bit just to drag things out even more. Eventually that whistle blew to loud cheers from our fans and Xhaka was soon conducting them in celebration.