Roll back to the 2008-09 season. February wasn’t worth cherishing for the Cherries. The club were forced into administration after having debts of around £4 million, going out of business completely. This led to the club facing a 10-point deduction, with relegation looming large.
Then came the final home game of Bournemouth, with their Football League status at stake. Club legend Steve Fletcher nets an 80th minute winner to send Kings Park in unceremonious celebrations. They were safe. They had pulled off another fairytale, one reminiscent of Mel Machin’s 1994-95 coup, but they left it too late this time, eventually pulling off what the Cherries affiliate as ‘The Great Escape’…
Fast forward today, Bournemouth are dreaming of Premier League football, sitting at top of The Championship. One man who has led the Cherries dreaming is former legend Eddie Howe. At just 37, the Englishman, right from maneuvering ‘The Great Escape’, to promoting the Boscombe to the League One and The Championship has been the mastermind behind Bournemouth’s recent success.
After securing safety from the drop zone, Bournemouth were promoted to the League One thanks to an impervious winning streak. After guiding his boyhood club to back-to-back promotions, Howe left them to manage Burnley in January 2011. While it might be a co-incidence, Bournemouth without Howe didn’t look convincing, losing the League One play-offs to Huddersfield Town.
The start of the forthcoming season proved to be more disastrous, as October saw them amongst the relegation battlers. The club decided to part ways with manager Paul Groves, and they again turned to Howe. Howe, not only did uproot Bournemouth from relegation zone, but also propelled them to the Championship, returning to the second-tier of English football for the first time since 1990. The first season in the Championship saw them finish 10th, a meritorious finish for a club with a shoestring budget.
“Were on our way, Were on our way,
Up the Football League,
Were on our way,
How we get there I don’t know, How we get there I don’t care
All I know that Bournemouth’s on the way.” sang the Dean Court faithful as they gazumped Watford 2-0 on Saturday. Leading the table with 54 points, and with promotion to the Premier League in sight., Bournemouth hardly look unperturbed.
2014-15 season has been buoyant for the Cherries, and Howe’s ‘Wing Wizards’; as right-back Simon Francis describes, have come a long way.
And indeed it’s their wingers that have been influential to their Premier League quest.
Wingers Marc Pugh and Matt Ritchie; who scored at the weekend; have amassed a total of 15 goals between them, setting-up an incredible 14 for their team-mates. While the wingers continue to cause a furore down the flanks club top scorer has been another outlay for goals, bagging 12 goals, further assisting 6.
At the back, captain Tommy Elphick has been the cornerstone of the defence that has kept 10 clean sheets, and has started every game for Eddie Howe’s charges. He has the assurances of an experienced campaigner in Artur Boruc in goal behind him.
With 28 games gone, Bournemouth lead the table, but its not ,much that separates the Cherries from the rest. Bournemouth are level on points with Derby, ahead on the basis of a superior goal difference, while third and fourth placed Middlesbrough and Ipswich are 3 & 5 points behind them.
Any slip-ups will see the closely loitering clubs take-over, while continuation of the current form will see them prolong their fairytale run, playing in England’s top tier for the first time in their 125-year history.
Image Courtesy : afcb.co.uk, Express, BBC, TGSPhoto