By Albatross
October 13 2002

"The Sun always shines on TV" - except on Pools, and not in Bournemouth today either! A 2-1 defeat, a sending off for Mickey Barron, and a match that the conditions prevented from being anything like a classic. One chink of light though - Pools stay top of Division 3. Pools once again failed to break their live TV duck after losing 2-1 in conditions more suited to swimming than football on the South Coast.

CT decided to stick with the side that started in the win against Shrewsbury last week, with Darrell Clarke again playing at Wingback. Pools were kicking with the considerable wind in the first half, and the conditions were to have a big effect on the game. It had been raining most of the day on the south coast, and continued to rain heavily for most of the game. So much for better weather down there!

Pools struck first with what was possibly the first clear chance of the game on 17 minutes; a weak back-header by a Bournemouth defender was anticipated well by EIFION WILLIAMS, who took the ball down, turned, and then fired home via the post.

It didn't look good for Pools when three minutes later they conceded a penalty and lost Mickey Barron. A long ball in from the Pools left caused trouble in the pools defence, and Barron was adjudged to have fouled the Bournemouth forward and promptly was given his marching orders. While there was contact between Barron's arms and the Bournemouth forward's legs, a straight red was a bit harsh as the Cherries player was never going to score from the position he was in, and looked set to just toe-end the ball behind for a goal kick.

After a lengthy delay while the unfortunate Barron remonstrated with the Ref and then slowly departed, Bournemouth then squandered this golden chance, with Williams making a good save low down to his left from Elliott's penalty. It wasn't a poor penalty, but a good save from Taff, who was to have an exceptional afternoon.

Pols then changed formation to 4-3-2, Clarke playing at right back, and although we didn't really create much after that, some hard work from the midfield limited the Cherries opportunites. The strong wind wasn't helping Pools at all, as even Taff's goal kicks were accelerating away and behind at the other end, despite his efforts to strike it gently! 1-0 at Half Time then, and although Pools had coped well with the loss of Barron it was bound to be a much tougher second half; and so it proved.

Bournemouth dominated after the break, and Pools were struggling to make any headway against the wind. Goal kicks and clearances were rarely getting beyond the half way line, and this meant that when Pools did win the ball they were finding it very difficult to clear their lines, never mind launch counter attacks.

Taff made a string of good saves, some particularly memorable ones from Connell and Hayter just on the hour mark. Both times he did well to push the ball away for a corner, and it was from the second of these that the equaliser came: Westwood got to the ball first, but it was chipped back in from near the penalty spot for ELLIOTT to shoot home from a couple of yards out, Westwood having slipped in the poor conditions.

Taff made another brilliant save from Connell a couple of minutes later, and then Humphreys had a wonderful little spell that almost saw Pools take the lead again; some good work by him wide on the left say him cut inside past two defenders before putting in a superb low cross that Boyd just failed to get on the end of.

Former Poolie Steve Fletcher made his appearance on 71 minutes, coming on for Hayter. A couple of minutes later, Taff made himself unpopular with the Bournemouth fans when he maliciousy got in the way of a ball thrown directly at him with some force by a Bournemouth fan, and then had the temerity to point the offender out to the stewards.

Richardson came on for Boyd, and then Hendo for Eifion as CT tried to wrest the initiative back from the Cherries, but it was Bournemouth who took the lead in bizarre circumstances. A ball into the box was cut out by Westwood, who slipped on the greasy turf; he tried to get the ball clear, but only succeeded in knocking the ball straight at Tommy Widd, who saw the ball hit his foot and go past the helpless Williams.

CT responded by throwing on Smith for Widds, and he did manage to put in a couple of decent crosses, and Tinks was denied a penalty in Injury Time, but it required another top notch save from Taff to keep it down to 2-1.

Man of the match for Pools had to be Williams - but this time it was Anth not Eifion. He's come in for a lot of criticism recently, but today he was simply outstanding with some real quality saves that kept Pools in the hunt for so long. Mention should also go to the midfield trio, who worked very hard after Barron's sending off, and to Westwood and Lee. Westie in particular made a number of vital saves and clearances, and it was sheer bad luck that he should slip on a very wet pitch at just the wrong moment. Boyd never really got into the game, and although Eifion worked incredibly hard he saw very little of the ball.

The sending off was without doubt the turning point of the match. Without Barron, we were pinned into our own half for almost the whole of the second period - as much by the wind as by Bournemouth - and it got to the stage of being a question of when, not if, the Cherries would score. It's difficult to see how CT could have changed things without going to one up front - and as it was, keeping both Will and Boyd up front limited the opportunites for the Bournemouth defenders to join the attack, We were dreadfully lacking in width, as Robinson and Clarke had to drop back to fullback, but again it's difficult to see how to remedy that without leaving us short elsewhere.

The Sky Curse on Pools stays in force then, although at least we have now scored a goal for the watching masses to see, and lest anyone forget - we are STILL top of the league.