Bouremouth 0 Town 1

Aug 20 2007 by Dougie Thomson

CAN we play you every week?

Blackpool might have been a touch on the miserable side, but Town certainly enjoy their trips to this seaside resort.

They haven’t lost in their last 13 visits to Bournemouth, and this was their eighth win in that spell.

Sealed by Luke Beckett’s 43rd-minute header, it was all the more impressive because Andy Ritchie was forced to shuffle a squad already missing hamstring injury victims Danny Cadamarteri and Frank Sinclair.

With Danny Schofield ruled out of the journey because of a family bereavement and David Mirfin unavailable after picking up a knee injury while training, Ritchie played Malvin Kamara up front, where Schofield had been filling in for Cadamarteri.

Matt Young came in for a first appearance of the season, and a first under Ritchie’s management, on the right side of midfield.

And the manager put Andy Holdsworth, the man he sees more as a midfielder, back in his more familiar position of right-back and replaced centre-back Mirfin with Aaron Hardy, who had come on at right-back when Sinclair was forced off at Blackpool.

Hardy was handed the task of man-marking Jo Kuffour, one of Ritchie’s close-season transfer targets, and he did a fine job.

The diminutive striker who was so often a thorn in Town’s side when playing for Torquay and Brentford hardly got a look-in.

Hardy was the stand-out performer, but every member of Ritchie’s industrious side did their bit to keep Bournemouth at bay.

Not that it was a mainly defensive display, because Town were just as forceful going forward, and they got their reward.

Beckett, whose header sealed the opening-day League I home win over Yeovil, had already nodded a Young cross against the base of keeper Asmir Begovic’s right-hand post by the time he struck the game’s only goal.

Bournemouth failed to heed that 38th-minute warning, because when Holdsworth fired in a free-kick from just inside the home half, Beckett was left with time and space.

Begovic, the Bosnian stopper on loan from Portsmouth, was beaten all ends up.

But Bournemouth boss Kevin Bond held highly-rated defender Josh Gowling responsible, admitting: “He went walkabout.”

That accusation couldn’t be levelled at Bournemouth skipper Darren Anderton, the former England star who pulled the strings in midfield and did his best to cajole his team into a response to Beckett’s goal.

Matt Glennon saved smartly from Jason Pearce’s 64th-minute free-kick, then, on 88 minutes, Max Gradel drilled wide from a good position only to be flagged for offside.

But Bournemouth’s best chance was still to come, with Paul Telfer, who played Champions League football for Celtic last season, firing a long-range effort which looked destined for Glennon’s top left-hand corner until the keeper tipped it away.

Town also had their chances, with Kamara, whose first-half shot was blocked by Begovic, looking lively.

He won the 53rd-minute free-kick from which Joe Skarz came close to a first career goal, his left-foot shot from Chris Brandon’s set-piece being saved one-handed.

Then, in stoppage time, substitute Andy Booth’s drive from Kamara’s header was held.