| Full name | AFC Bournemouth | |||
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| Nickname(s) | The Cherries | |||
| Founded | 1890 (as Boscombe St. John's Institute FC but dissolved in 1899 and reformed in 1899 as Boscombe FC) | |||
| Ground | Seward Stadium (Capacity: 11,933) |
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| Chairman | Eddie Mitchell | |||
| Manager | Lee Bradbury | |||
| League | League One | |||
| 2010–11 | League One, 6th | |||
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| Current season | ||||
A.F.C. Bournemouth is an English football club playing in Football League One. The club plays at Dean Court in Kings Park, Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset and have been in existence since 1899.
Nicknamed The Cherries, the team traditionally played in red shirts with white sleeves until 1971, when the strip was changed to red and black stripes, similar to that of A.C. Milan. A predominantly red shirt was chosen for the 2004–05 and 2005–06 seasons before announcing a return to the stripes for the 2006–07 season due to fan demand. After narrowly avoiding relegation from the football league in the 2008–09 season, Bournemouth were promoted in the 2009–10 to League One. In 2010–11 the club finished sixth, and qualified for the playoffs to the Championship, but lost on penalties in the semifinal against Huddersfield Town.
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Although there is no authentic information as to the exact date of the clubs foundation, there is proof that it was formed in the autumn of 1890 out of the remains of the older Boscombe St. John's Lads’ Institute F.C.[1] The club was originally known as Boscombe F.C.. The first President was Mr. J.C. Nutt.[2]
In their first season 1889–90 Boscombe F.C. competed in the Bournemouth and District Junior League. They also played in the Hants Junior Cup. During the first two seasons they played on a football pitch in Castlemain Road, Pokesdown. From their third season the team played on a pitch in King’s Park. In the season of 1905–06 Boscombe F.C. graduated to senior amateur football.
In 1910 the club was granted a long lease upon some wasteland next to Kings Park, as the clubs football ground, by their president Mr. J.E. Cooper-Dean. With their own ground, named Dean Court after the benefactor, the club continued to thrive and dominated the local football scene. Also in 1910 the club signed their first professional football player B. Penton.
Around about this time the club obtained their nickname 'The Cherries'. Foremost there are two tales on how the club gained this pet name. First, because of the cherry-red striped shirts that the team played in and, perhaps more plausible, because Dean Court was built adjacent to the Cooper-Dean estate, which encompassed numerous cherry orchards.
For the first time during the season of 1913–14 the club competed in the F.A. Cup. The clubs progress was halted in 1914 with the outbreak of the war and Boscombe F.C. returned to the Hampshire league.
In 1920 the Third Division was formed and Boscombe were promoted to the Southern League, with moderate success.
To make the club more representative of the district, the name was changed to Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic Football Club in 1923. During the same year the club was elected to the Football League. The first league match was in Swindon on 25 August 1923, Bournemouth lost 3–1. The first league game at Dean Court was also against Swindon, Bournemouth gained their first league point with a goalless draw.
Initially Bournemouth struggled in the Football League, but eventually established themselves as a Third Division club. Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic Football Club remain on the records as the longest continuous Members of the Third Division.
But as a league club, Bournemouth had to wait until after the second world war before winning their first trophy. This was accomplished as they beat Walsall FC in the Third Division (South) Cup in the Final at Stamford Bridge.
Under manager John Bond the club adopted the more streamlined A.F.C. Bournemouth name in 1972 which is, however, only a trade name; the club is still officially registered as Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic Football Club. At the same time, the club adopted their current badge as a symbol of the club's progress. The stripes in the background were based on the club shirt, while in the foreground is the profile of a player heading the ball, in honour of Dickie Dowsett, a prolific scorer for the club in the 1950s and 1960s.[3]
Their red and black kit introduced in 1971 was based on the old A.C. Milan strip. This was the era of Ted MacDougall, a prolific goalscorer who, in an FA Cup tie in November 1971, scored nine goals in an 11–0 win against Margate.
Following an ownership change in 1997, they became Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic Football Club (1998).
The club defeated Manchester United in the FA Cup in January 1984, while they were managed by Harry Redknapp.[4][5]
Redknapp took Bournemouth into the second tier of the English league for the first time in their history as Third Division champions in 1987. They stayed there for three years, and he remained at the helm for two years after their relegation in 1990, before leaving for West Ham United.
On Saturday 5 May 1990, the final day of the 1989–90 season, Leeds United had the chance to win the Second Division and gain promotion into the First Division by beating Bournemouth at Dean Court. Some United fans had already caused trouble in the town during the morning and the atmosphere was tense as Leeds won the match by a single goal. Combined with the results of other matches, this meant that Leeds were promoted while Bournemouth were relegated. The violence and destruction by visitors to Bournemouth continued over the holiday weekend 'causing more than £1million worth of damage and injury to opposing fans and police officers'.[6] The town's Daily Echo newspaper reported that 'spectators, including many young children, had to run to safety as missiles were hurled and riot police waded in to control the crowds'.[6] The matter was raised in Parliament by one of the town's MPs. Financially, the Leeds trouble affected the club for more than a decade, as Bournemouth were prevented by local police from staging home games on Bank Holidays (traditionally a popular day for football) until a game against Shrewsbury Town on 21 April 2003.
Sean O'Driscoll was promoted from the coaching staff in place of Mel Machin at the start of the 2000–01 season. In his first season as manager, Bournemouth narrowly missed out on the Division Two playoffs, but were relegated a year later in the new stadium. The board kept faith in O'Driscoll and they were rewarded with promotion via the Division Three playoffs in 2002–03. The club became the first to score 5 goals at the Millennium Stadium when they beat Lincoln City 5–2 in the 2002–03 Division Three Play-off final.
Under O'Driscoll, Bournemouth narrowly missed out on the playoffs for the 2003–04 and 2004–05 seasons, and just avoided relegation in the 2005–06 season.
Long-serving player James Hayter scored the fastest league hat-trick in English Football League history during the 2003–04 season. The Cherries were leading 3–0 against Wrexham, thanks to goals from Steven Purches, Warren Cummings and Warren Feeney, when Hayter was brought onto the field as a substitute. With 86 minutes gone, Hayter managed to net three goals in the space of 2 minutes 20 seconds, making the final score 6–0 to A.F.C. Bournemouth.
In September 2006, with the team in 8th place in the League, Sean O'Driscoll left to become manager of Doncaster Rovers. By the time the new manager Kevin Bond was appointed the team were struggling. Kevin Bond was a former Bournemouth player, and his father managed the Club during perhaps its most memorable era in the early 1970s. After a poor start to the 2008–09 season he was sacked and replaced by Jimmy Quinn.
Peter Phillips stepped down as club chairman on 1 September 2006 after 4 years at the helm. Local entrepreneur Abdul Jaffer was promoted from vice-chairman to temporary chairman until a new permanent one was appointed by the board of directors. Jaffer resigned in February 2007, and in March the shareholders agreed to a takeover by a consortium led by businessman Jeff Mostyn.
Manager Sean O'Driscoll and his assistant Richard O'Kelly left on 9 September 2006 to join Doncaster Rovers. At the same time former England midfielder Darren Anderton joined the club on a pay-as-you-play basis. On his debut versus Scunthorpe United he scored the Bournemouth equaliser in a 1–1 draw. He also scored his first hat-trick against Leyton Orient Football Club in the 5–0 home victory.
After a 5 week search, former Cherries favourite Kevin Bond was named as O'Driscoll's successor. The Cherries made a good start under Bond, winning their first six games, and drawing two. In addition, a surprise 2–0 win over top of the table Nottingham Forest secured their seventh victory of the season.
A.F.C. Bournemouth secured their League One status for another year in the last home game of the 2006–07 season with a 1–1 draw against Gillingham (28 April 2007). On 29 May James Hayter was sold to Doncaster Rovers for a fee believed to be in the region of £200,000. This left the Cherries squad with just 9 contracted first team players, two of whom were goalkeepers.
19 June 2007 saw Brentford striker Jo Kuffour sign for the club after turning down several other offers. Also joining were central defender Russell Perrett, ex-Celtic utility man Paul Telfer, non league midfielder Marvin Bartley, former player Garreth O'Connor and defenders Ryan Garry and Jason Pearce (both on free transfers).
In August 2007 Lee Bradbury signed for A.F.C. Bournemouth on a four month loan deal from Southend United. After playing one game for the club the loan was made permanent, and Bradbury signed a contract until the end of the season. With the growing injury crisis, Kevin Bond has brought in a number of loan signings, including Marc Wilson, keeper Asmir Begović, Reading reserves James Henry, Jem Karacan, Scott Golbourne and Alex Pearce, and ex-cherry's school boy Adam Lallana, who had earlier left to join Southampton. The loan of Max Gradel was also cut short due to the death of his mother. He returned in mid-November, and just days after his loan deal expired on 2 January 2008, he came back to the Cherries on loan for the rest of the season. Tough-tackling Neil Young joined Weymouth on loan for a month.
Bond was hopeful that some of his quartet of on-loan Reading players, who returned to the Royals after the game at Brighton & Hove Albion on New Year's Day, could return to Dean Court in the future. Bond said "I would take them all back given the opportunity — they've all done very well".[7] However, none of them returned to the Cherries, apart from Jem Karacan, who was playing for Millwall as they lost 2–0 to the Cherries at Dean Court on 29 March 2008. In the January transfer window, the Cherries signed experienced Norwegian midfielder Jo Tessem on a free until the end of the season.
On 7 February 2008, Bournemouth were forced into administration, suffering a 10-point deduction which put them in relegation trouble. Bournemouth had debts of around £4million and almost went out of business completely.[8]
The only bid that administrators Gerald Krasner and Begbies Traynor had accepted came from a consortium led by chairman Jeff Mostyn. However, in a press conference on 3 April 2008 Mr Krasner said that due to a breach of the agreement between the administrators and the consortium relating to the funding of the consortium and the sale of the club.[9] Along with this, the administrator also warned that the club may also be closed before the end of the season unless appropriate funding came forward.
In spite of off-the-field issues with the club, Bournemouth achieved a remarkable string of results in Football League One. By 19 April, a winning streak of five matches left Bournemouth four points away from safety with two games remaining. The winning streak was increased to six matches on 26 April with a vital 1–0 victory over Crewe Alexandra.[10] Victory or a draw away at Carlisle on 3 May, depending on Cheltenham Town and Gillingham's results, would ensure Bournemouth's survival in the division. Harry Redknapp commented that escaping relegation "...would be more than a Great Escape, it would be a miracle", and said that "...if Kevin (Bond) doesn't get manager of the month there's something wrong".[11] Bournemouth managed to achieve a 1–1 draw in the match against Carlisle United but, with Cheltenham Town winning at home to Doncaster Rovers 2–1, were relegated to League Two.
The team's future in the Football League was put into doubt before it even began play, when on 6 August the league threatened to block Bournemouth's participation in League Two, due to problems with the team's continuing administration and change in ownership. It ordered both Bournemouth and Rotherham United to demonstrate that they can fulfill all of their fixtures and find a way out of administration.[12] The next day the Football League confirmed that A.F.C. Bournemouth would start the season on a 17 point penalty for failing to follow the Football League insolvency rules and the new company would have to pay unsecured creditors the amount offered at the time of the original C.V.A. (around 10 pence in the pound) within 2 years.[13]
On 1 September, BBC Radio 5 Live reported that Bond and his management team had been sacked. A day later it was announced former player Jimmy Quinn would be the new manager with former player Jason Tindall as his assistant. The duo's first game in charge was a 1–1 draw at Notts County. However, the same day as the new coaching staff had been appointed, the Cherries had a Football League Trophy first round game to play against Bristol Rovers for which youth team manager Joe Roach took charge. The Cherries won the game 3–0. In the second round the Cherries won 1–0 away to MK Dons and in the area quarter finals lost 1–0 to Colchester United. Eddie Howe has since returned as head of the club's centre of excellence. However, the club was knocked out of the FA Cup by non-league Blyth Spartans.
On the evening of 31 December manager Jimmy Quinn left the club.[14] Even though Eddie Howe's two games as caretaker manager were away defeats it was announced that Howe would take over as permanent manager of AFC Bournemouth, becoming the youngest manager in the English Football League at the age of 31.[15]
At the end of 2008, it was announced that local businessman Adam Murry completed the purchase of 50% of the club's shares from previous chairman Paul Baker. However, in January 2009, Murry missed the deadline to buy Baker's shares and Murry has been trying to negotiate a deal with Baker since.[16]
In the final home game of the 2009 season the Cherries guaranteed their Football League status by beating Grimsby Town. They finished their troubled season with their best away win for 30 years with a 4–0 victory at Morecambe.
In June 2009, a consortium including Adam Murry finally took over AFC Bournemouth. The consortium includes Jeff Mostyn, former Vice Chairman Steve Sly, Neill Blake and former Dorchester Town chairman Eddie Mitchell.
Eddie Howe's first full season in charge brought success, as Bournemouth finished second in League 2 to earn promotion. 1,500 fans made the journey to Burton Albion to see them clinch promotion with two games to spare, winning 2–0 with goals from Brett Pitman and Alan Connell.
Eddie Howe's third year in charge of the Cherries started with a bang. Three hard starting fixtures ended in 2 losses against Charlton Athletic and Southampton and a 5–1 thumping of promotion candidates Peterborough United with a 13 minute hattrick from Brett Pitman and goals from Marc Pugh and Anton Robinson. Following this victory, a 3–0 away win at Tranmere Rovers, who Bournemouth ended a 29 year spell without a win at Prenton Park, with goals from Josh McQuoid, Michael Symes and Marc Pugh. A 3–3 draw at home with Notts County followed, despite being 3–0 ahead after 28 minutes, 2 goals from Josh McQuoid and the third from Anton Robinson. County made it 3–1 two minutes later, but 2 goals from County in second half injury time resulted in a 3–3 draw. They finished 6th in the league and made it to the playoffs, their first game against Huddersfield at Dean Court was on the 14th of May. The match ended 1–1, with Kevin Kilbane scoring for Huddersfield, and Danny Ings had a penalty saved before Donal Mcdermott equalised. The second leg at the Galpharm Stadium ended 3–3 after extra time, where Liam Feeney had his penalty saved and Anton Robinson hit the crossbar as Huddersfield went through 4–2 on penalties.
Lee Bradbury's first full season in charge began with a pre-season visit to Hamworthy Recreation, a game that ended in a 10–0 win for Bournemouth. 3 trialists featured for Bournemouth.
Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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A.F.C. Bournemouth Reserve Team play in the Football Combination Wales & West Division.
Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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