There but for the grace of god.........or a rich Russian owner ! These two were facing off in League 1 as recently as 2013, last season Bournemouth were promoted to the promised land of the EPL, Hartlepool narrowly avoided relegation out of the Football League !  A week is a long time in politics, two years is a lifetime in football !

 

 

Capital One Cup: Hartlepool United- AFC Bournemouth

 

Stating the obvious, there is a big gulf in class between the two EPL teams and their opponents ( edit: I previewed two matches together this morning), but the lower league teams will take heart from the fact that the top flight teams will heavily rotate and that they have themselves started the season very well and have nothing to lose. However, both xxxxx and Bournemouth have strong and big squads and have players looking to impress, either to force their way into Premier League contention, or to earn a move away from their respective clubs with the transfer window closing next Tuesday.
 

I discussed Hartlepool last midweek......Home boss Ronnie Moore has a much better lower league record and knows the game well, he took charge of Pool in December with the club bottom of League 2 and heading out of the Football League, having averaged only 0.6 pts per game, Moore upped that to 1.27 pts and oversaw the great escape. His team are a perfect 3 from 3 this season and will fancy their chances of adding to that , with the scheduler having kindly organised a nice 900 km round trip and approx ten hours on a team bus for County on a Tuesday night !

They won that 1-0, but suffered their first loss of the season at Stevenage over the weekend and now have to meet a Bournemouth side cock-a-hoop after their big win at Upton Park at the weekend, ahead of their previous road game, a trip to Liverpool I spoke about how well suited they are to playing on the road .............. I saw a lot of the Cherries last season, they have a very similar footballing philosophy to Brentford and they are very committed to playing attractive football with a strong emphasis on attack. This was especially evident in road games, where they could use their great pace and ability to make a very quick transition and exploit the extra space that most away teams are allowed. They have scored in 18 of their last 20 road games, they dominated one of the others (away to Leeds) including missing a penalty and scored 48 (!) goals in the other 18, including five or more in four of those and remember, we are talking only about away games !

Boss Eddie Howe has openly stated that he will not abandon these principles in the Premier League and why would he, they play to their strengths and to abandon this approach would not only be an error, it could turn into a disaster. But it is brave and sure result in a few heavy defeats here and there. There was enough evidence in their opening day defeat to Aston Villa, where Bournemouth had enough chances before the break to have beaten the Villans twice, to back up Howe's claim and I feel certain they will be looking to take the game to Liverpool at every opportunity this evening.
 

They will want to keep up the momentum and whilst they might change as many as 5-7 players, boss Eddie Howe says he has two teams stronger than he started last season with and a "B" team containing Federeci, Distin, Rantie, Tomlin, Kermogant, Mings (£8m off season signing), Atsu etc who will all be out to snatch a first team chance and the starting line up, whatever that might be, will be better than the one which started most Championship matches and won the second tier title last season.

 

 

 

Good Luck.