I went today, and while the game was fantastically entertaining, the defending by both sides was truly abysmal at times, perhaps due in part to the dodgy ball we were playing with: from where I was sitting, Bournemouth's first four goals were all the result of atroscious defending, and two of ours came from Cressa free kicks that their keeper really should have held on to.
The first ten minutes were the most desperate I have ever seen from a Rovers side. On all three goals no Rovers defender or midfielder so much as put in a block or a tackle on a Bournemouth player. It was schoolboy stuff, worse even than anything we saw under Barnes (yes, THAT bad).
To give credit where it is due, however, our fightback was stunning. We gradually ground our way back into the game, growing in stature as the first half progressed, when many sides would have crumbled. Make no mistake, Bournemouth are a very good side and played better going forwards today than they did at Prenton Park, and we did well to even get a foothold in the game after such a shocking start.
Ironically, having levelled the game, Bournemouth's fourth resulted from another defensive howler, as Cresswell gifted the ball to the opposing striker when he should have put in to row Z.
In response to Boz's comment, the substitution of ITM mystified me, as he was the best of our three strikers today (Enoch doesn't look fully fit), and in such a mad game we still had a chance even at 5-3. Morrow did absolutely nothing as in his previous performances, and our attacking threat petered out in the last fifteen minutes.
I am really struggling to understand the side at the moment. The inconsistency which we used to see from match to match, we are now seeing within individual games. Anybody have any explanations ?