Life is like a bowl of Cherries

Reporter: Matthew Chambers
Date published: 15 March 2013


WHICH Bournemouth will turn up on Saturday?

The side featuring an attack of lethal pace and potency, Lewis Grabban hat-tricks and five-match winning streaks of the like the Cherries have managed three times this season?

Or the side that struggles to score — as in the run to date of three goals in six fixtures — and whose form can dip suddenly and alarmingly to leave automatic promotion hopes in serious doubt?

Athletic will hope it’s the latter.

Eddie Howe’s men epitomise the Jekyll-and-Hyde nature of the game at this level.

Howe is blessed with a squad that is the envy of most rivals in League One. The Cherries have it within their power to create chances that the likes of Grabban, Brett Pitman and Matt Tubbs should thrive on.

From Athletic’s perspective, the fact that Howe’s charges managed to end their five-match losing run by eking out a 1-0 triumph at Stevenage in midweek is a worry.