F.A. Cup 4th Round
Thursday 25th January 2024
Kick Off 19.45 On Time!
A.F.C. Bournemouth 5 Swansea City 0, attendance 10,166
6’ 1-0, 9’ 2-0, 15’ 3-0, 35’ 4-0, 44’ 5-0
@ Vitality Stadium (Dean Court)
Kings Park
Bournemouth
BH7 7AF
£20 Admission + £1.50 booking fee
£3.50 Programme available, didn’t bother buying.
I had visited Dean Court (pre sponsor names) back in April 1990, when I saw Bournemouth draw 1-1 versus Wolverhampton Wanderers in a Division 2 match (att. 7,448). At the end of the 2000/01 season, the ground was knocked down (pitch turned 90 degrees) and then fully rebuilt (11,307 capacity) over the coming months, which meant they had to play a number of home games at the ground of non-League Dorchester Town (saw them beat Notts County 4-2 there in Division 2 att. 3,206 on October 27th) whilst work was completed to a useable level.
I never thought I’d bother coming back here, but being a rare Thursday night game, with the offer of a lift, as well as cheap tickets (our seats are £45 for league games), it was the perfect chance to come and tidy this one up. Tickets were available online, but only in one section of the ground (when I booked them on Saturday evening) and were just £20 (plus a flat £3 booking fee). No option to print your own ticket, but rather oddly, sent out by post. They arrived just after 11 o’clock yesterday morning, so at least we wouldn’t have to go via the ticket office to try and obtain a replacement. Having arrived ridiculously early, we had time to go and eat before returning to the ground and managed to park no more than 200 yards from the stadium (parking restrictions cease at 5pm during the week) which meant an easy getaway afterwards.
Although this was Premier League (12th) versus Championship (16th), you never know whether the higher placed club will take the game seriously. Even clubs who haven’t won a trophy in years don’t seem to care whether they win or not. It wasn’t the case tonight, certainly from a home point of view. Bournemouth were absolutely superb, although Swansea certainly did their best to aid in that, as they were wide open and continued to try and play out from the back, when it became apparent very early on that they couldn’t do so!
It only took Bournemouth seven minutes to open the scoring, when Kelly swept in a Brooks free kick at the far post and goal number two arrived three minutes later, when Brooks cut the ball back for Scott to finish from close range. It was soon 3-0, as Swansea were caught trying to play out from the back, resulting in a Scott interception and a finish from Sinisterra. A rare Swansea attack saw them hit the post and go close with the rebound, but goal number four arrived on 35 minutes, this time finished clinically by Scott, after being played through by Solanke and it was 5-0 in the dying seconds of the half when a Sinisterra cross was put in by Solanke.
The second half, not surprisingly, never produced much. Loads of substitutions and very little in the way of goal mouth action. No messing about with added time at the end of the match though, as the final whistle was blown at 90 minutes 01 second according to the video screen clock!
As for the ground….its functional, but very cramped. It certainly doesn’t feel like you’re at a Premier League stadium, but more like being at League 1 or 2, or one of the better National League grounds.
