Bournemouth 1 Amesbury Town 0, Wessex Premier League, Saturday 17th August 2019
A weekend away with the family means time to chill, reconnect and spend some much-needed quality family time together. But, more importantly than all that, it gives me the opportunity to attend a game at a ground I wouldn’t usually be able to get to on a ‘typical’ Saturday. With the family in tow, of course. I’m not an ogre!
We’re in the New Forest this weekend, at the in-law’s holiday home. It’s the place that gave birth to my groundhopping career just over a year ago, when I snuck off to watch a football match rather than spend another night… erm… indulging in that quality family time I mentioned earlier.
Upon arriving at our destination on Thursday, I’m not ashamed to admit that the first thing I did was check my Groundhopper App to see what games were being played within a 50km radius. My heart soared. Not only were there a plethora of options on offer on the Saturday, but there was also a Friday night fixture fairly close by. I’m not going to lie, I was severely tempted to squeeze an extra game in. Ultimately, though, a combination of the foul weather (it was absolutely bucketing down) and a rare fit of conscience (it was more the weather, to be honest), led to me eschewing this plan.
Because I’m such a family man deep down, I left it to my children to decide from the App-produced list what game we should head to.
We arrived at the ground just after 14:20 and paid a grand total of £13 at the gate for the four of us to enter and park (£6 each for adults, nothing for the kids, and a further £1 for a basic but informative enough programme).
Victoria Park is a fairly standard County ground, featuring one covered seated stand which is connected to a pleasant clubhouse. The rest of the ground is completely open and, much to the kids’ delight, there is plenty of green space along three sides of the pitch where they spent much of the afternoon playing, instead of watching, football (and retrieving wayward match balls).
My youngest accompanied me on my initial walk around the pitch and, as is so often the case when I go anywhere with him, an awkward situation soon arose.
As we passed by where the Bournemouth players were warming up, he asked me in that innocent tone that only a 6-year-old can muster:
“Daddy, will those Bournemouth players know about the other team called Bournemouth.”
I explained that they would. He then asked a second question (he likes asking questions).
“If the two Bournemouth teams played each other who would win?”
I explained that the Premier League team would be much more likely to emerge victorious. Another question quickly followed.
“Well, why don’t these players go and play for that Bournemouth, then?”
I explained, quietly as were walking right alongside the Bournemouth squad by this time, that to play for AFC Bournemouth you have to be really, really good, and that these players just aren’t quite good enough. Yet another question came.
“Are they rubbish then?”
I explained (even quieter this time) that, no, they were not rubbish, but professional players are just ridiculously good. Cue another question.
“Well, why didn’t they practice more when they were younger?”
At which point I quickly ushered him back to where his elder brother was already kicking a ball around behind a goal.
The game itself won’t live overly long in the memory. A thriller it most certainly wasn’t. This can partly be attributed to a swirling, gusty wind that certainly help proceedings. That said, I’m not sure quite why the Amesbury Town right back felt the need to be wearing under armour. It wasn’t exactly cold. I couldn’t help but wonder what he’ll be wearing under his shirt come the deepest, darkest, coldest winter nights? A club branded woolly jumper, perhaps?
In the first half, it was the visitors who had the winds at their backs, and they spent the majority of the half on the ascendancy. Jordan Matthews on the right-hand side looked Amesbury’s main threat, but despite getting into a number of threatening positions throughout the half, Bournemouth ‘keeper Shane Cooper wasn’t called into action too often.
As Town huffed and puffed up front, it was Bournemouth, on one of their rare forays forward, who struck the decisive goal. Karol Rog worked himself a bit of space just outside the penalty area, before curling a delightful shot from the right-hand corner of the box into the far bottom corner. It was a rare moment of quality in a largely scrappy, fractious match.
On the stroke of half-time, the visitors came as close as they would to forcing an equaliser, but somehow couldn’t force the ball home following a goalmouth scramble. That said, my eldest, who was standing directly behind the goal, was adamant the visitors should have had a penalty during the melee, when Cooper clearly (he said, I couldn’t see it from my vantage point) yanked a Town player down by his shoulders. It’s fair to say the visitors felt they were on the wrong end of a number of refereeing decisions throughout the 90 minutes.
In the second-half, Town never really managed to place the hosts under a sustained period of pressure and it was the Poppies who looked far more likely to score any further goals. As the game opened up, Bournemouth looked a real threat on the counter attack, particularly through Rafael Santos who looked increasingly dangerous as the match progressed.
Were it not for three decent saves from Jordan Tewkesbury, the home-side’s margin of victory could have been more comfortable; although further goals would have placed an unflattering sheen to the scoreline. Amesbury will undoubtedly have disappointed to have taken something from the game.
So it may not have been the most thrilling 90-minutes of football I’ve seen this season, but so what? I got to visit another ground, the kids got to play football, wifey was able to read her book in peace for a while… everyone’s happy.
Anyway, it’s not my fault if the game didn’t live up to much, is it? After all, my youngest chose it…
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